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JUST OF IIKUCULES FKOM GKNSANO, NOW IN TIIF RRITISH MUSEUM 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



By 

HOWARD PAYSON ARNOLD 



ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS 
DIAGRAMS, AND FAC - SIMILES 




HARPER & 


BROTHERS 


PUBLISHERS 


NEW 


YORK AND 


LONDON 






1899 





c^ 






46584 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 






•ECOND COPY, 



Copyright, 1899, by IIarpeb & BnoTBBBBi 



All tigkti reUTVid. 



/ 



TO 

C. M. A. 

A BELOVED MEMORY 



/ o'f 



9? 



Tijv aavTOV (ppkva ripTrt ' dv(Tr)\iy'i(i)v Se TToXiruiv 
'AWof Tt'c ae KUKwg, aXXog ufieivov ipil. 

MiMNERMUS, 

"Heart, take thine ease, 
Men hard to please 

Tbou haply mightst offend. 
Though one speak ill 
Of thee, some will 

Say better ; there's an end." 

Translation of Dr. Peter Heylyn. 



CONTENTS 



Part I 



Franklin and the Continental Congress. — Franklin's Degree of LL.D. 
— St. Andrews and its Students. — Mr. George Monck Berkeley. — 
The Scotch and tlieir Country. — King George and his English. — 
His Life and Peculiarities. — The Duiie of Sussex. — The Georges 
en masse. — Franklin and his Soap. — The "Bay Psalm Book" 
and New England Rum. — Franklin and his Bath. — The Bag- 
pipe. — The Prophet Daniel. — Scotch Claret. — St. Andrew, the 
Patron Saint of Scotland. — Sir John Bowring. — Franklin in Edin- 
burgh Page 1 

Part II 

Franklin's Diploma. — Electricity in Scotland. — Franklin at St. An- 
drews. — Gift to the University. — Experimenis of Rev. Mr. Kin- 
nersley and Franklin's Debt thereto. — Franklin's Degree in 
America. — Benjamin Mecom and his Magazine. — E Pluribus 
Unum. — Baskerville's Virgil. — Yale Degree. — Harvard Degree. — 
Mr. Sibley and J. U. D. — Canon Law. — Meaning of LL.D. at St. 
Andrews and at Cambridge. — At Oxford. — Dr. Johnson's Degree 
from Oxford. — Present Insignificance of all Degrees. — A Beati- 
fied Lawyer 50 

Part III 

Oxford in 1762. — Oxford Dpgrees. — Dr. Johnson at Oxford. — Lord 
North and Gibbon. — Records at Oxford.— Franklin's D. C. L. — 
His Treatment by the University Authorities. — Franklin's "His- 
torical Review."— Style of the Work.— Presented by Franklin to 
Dr. Birch. —Gibbon and his Attitude toward Franklin. — His 
Capacity for Sitting. — Gibbon and the Colonists. — Franklin and 
Truth. — Adams and Franklin. — Untruthfulness as treated in the 
Old Testament.— Franklin's Liberality in Religious Matters. — 
Louisbourg taken by Prayer.— Franklin's Management of the 



CONTENTS 

Liquor Question.— Polly Baker. — The "Gentleman's Magazine" 
gives her a Wiinn Reception. — Spurious Letter of William 
Smith. — Polly Baker and the Abbe Rayual.— Search for the Birth- 
place of Polly Page 80 

Part IV 

Adams and the Great Seal of the United States. — The Committee 
thereon and its Action. — Du Similiere and his Sketches. — De- 
signs proposed by Adams, Jelferson, and Franklin.— Hengist and 
Horsa. — Moses and his Early Domination. — Moses in Massachu- 
setts. — Moses and Adams. — John Quincy Adams and Moses. — 
Randolph of Roanoke and the Bible. — John Quincy Adams on 
Expansion. — The Pilgrim Fathers and the Swine. — Senator De- 
pew and the American Hog. — The Swine of New England. — 
Pork and Beans 153 

Part V 

Hercules, Adams, and Franklin. —Judgment of Hercules. —Lord 
Shaftesbury. — Bishop Lowth. — Hercules and the Continental 
Congress. — Hercules and Prodicus — Career of the Hero. — Glad- 
stone. — Robert le Diable. — Professor Miiller. — David Sears and 
his Fourth God. — Hercules in Art. — The Greek Sculptors. — The 
Lausdowne Hercules 184 

Part VI 

Lord Shaftesbury and his Painting of the "Judgment of Hercules." — 
His Preparations for the Evolution of a Chef d'CEuvre. — Letters 
to his Friends. — Pierre Coste. — Philolopy. — Lord Shaftesbury's 
"Notion." — Final Edition of his " Characteristicks." — Paolo di 
Matthaeis. — The Young Milo. — Hercules between Virtue and 
Pleasure. — Lord Shaftesbury's Engagement and Marriage. — 
Virtue on Canvas. — Virtue and her Hill. — Pleasure and her 
Traits. — Raphael, " the sociable spirit." 216 

Part VII 

Franklin and "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." — Brad- 
shaw's Epitaph. — Bradshaw and Hancock.— Bradshaw's Execu- 
tion. — Franklin's Hand in the Epitapii. — Edwards's History of 
Jamaica. — Rev. George W. Bridges and his Letter. — Bradshaw's 
Family and Estate. — Memoir of Thomas Hollis.— Thomas Brand 
HoUis and his Fantastic Escapades. — The Idiosyncrasies of 
Thomas Hollis. — Franklin and Hollis. — John Adams and his Dis- 
sertation. — The various Tributes of Thomas Hollis to Human 
iv 



CONTENTS 

Worth. — Mr. and Mrs. Adams and Thomas Brand Hollis. — Style 
and Peculiarities of the Epitapii. — Jefferson and the Epitaph. — 
Great Seal of Virginia. — Prof. Girardin and the Epitaph. — Vir- 
ginia Coat of Arms. — The Hauteur of Virginia. — Wythe and the 
Seal of that State. — Jefferson and the Emperor Augustus. — Sic 
Semper Tyrannis, the Great Seal of Virginia. — Wythe its Author. 
— Wythe and Adams. — Dr. Stiles and the Epitaph.— Franklin and 
Dr. Stiles. — The Doctor's Fandangoes, Historical and Other. — 
His ' ' History of the Three Judges." Page 237 

Part VIII 

Committee on Great Seal of the United States. — Vestige of Debate. — 
Report of Committee. — Coat of Arms Devised by Du Simitiere. — 
Mr. Lossing's Vagaries. — Handwriting of Du Simitiere. — The 
"Gentleman's Journal." — Motteux. — E Pluribus Unmn. — Mrs. 
Priscilla Sherman. — Mrs. Charles Spencer Cowper. — Cave and 
the "Gentleman's Magazine."— His Peculiar Management. — Rev. 
J. Sackette. — Barabbas Cave. — liesume of his Labors.— Disrep- 
utable Character. — Prophecy about the new Republic. — Wash- 
ington in the "Gentleman's Magazine." — True Character of our 
Motto. — Louis XIV. — Mottoes of other Nations. — Motto of 
Massachusetts 379 

Supplement 316 

Index 321 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



BUST OF HEKCULES FROM GEN8AN0, NOW IN THE BRITISH 

MUSEUM Frontispiece 

PRIVATE NOTEBOOK OF GEORGE THE THIRD, NOW IN THE 

BRITISH MUSEUM — TWO LEAVES Facing p. 14 

COVERS OF PRIVATE NOTEBOOK OF GEORGE THE THIRD, 

NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM " 16 

FACSIMILE OF THE TITLEPAGE OF THE "NEW ENGLAND 

MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE AND PLEASURE " ... " 64 

GIBBON IN SILHOL'ETTE " 114 

GIBBON, BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS " 116 

DESIGN BY DU SIMITIERE FOR A MEDAL TO COMMEMO- 
RATE THE SURRENDER OF BOSTON " 154 

ALLEGED DESIGN FOR THE REVERSE OF SAME MEDAL . " 158 

HERCULES, BY P0LYKLEIT03 " 208 

THE LANSDOWNE HERCULES " 212 

THE CHOICE OF HERCULES, BY POUSSIN " 214 

LORD SHAFTESBURY, BY CLOSTERMAN " 230 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE GREAT SEAL OP THE 

UNITED STATES " 280 

FACSIMILE OF A VESTIGE OF THE DEBATES OF THE COM- 
MITTEE " 280 

DESIGN FOR SEAL, BY DU SUIITIERE " 282 

DESCRIPTION OP HIS DESIGN BY DU SIMITIEUE ... " 284 

FACSIMILE OF DU SIMITIERE'S NOTEBOOK " 286 

FACSIMILE OF DU SIMITIERE'S MANUSCRIPT " 286 

TITLEPAGE OF THE "GENTLEMAN'S JOURNAL" ... " 288 

SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE "GENTLEMAN'S JOURNAL". . " 288 

TITLEPAGE OF THE 'GENTLEMAN'S M.\GAZINE " ... " 293 

SECOND TITLEP.VGE OF THE "GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE" " 294 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Paet I 

Franklin and the Continental Congress. — Franklin's Degree of 
LL.D. — St. Andrews and its Students. — Mr. George Monck 
Berkeley. — The Scotch and their Country. — King George and his 
English. — His Life and Peculiarities. — The Duke of Sussex. — 
The Georges en masse. — Franklin and his Soap. — The "Bay 
Psalm Book" and New England Rum. — Franklin and his Bath. 
— The Bagpipe. — The Prophet Daniel. — Scotch Claret. —St. 
Andrew, the Patron Saint of Scotland. — Sir John Bowring. — 
Franklin in Edinburgh. 

On the 7th of June, 1776, Ricliarcl Henry Lee 
offered in the Continental Congress ^ liis famous resolu- 
tion " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought 
to be, free and independent states, and that they are 
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and 
that all political connection between them and the state 
of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

After a reference of this resolution, which was seconded 
by John Adams, than whom no member was more emi- 
nently worthy of that function, or more rarely fitted to 
invigorate the fortunes of a rising nation, to a committee 

1 That illustrious assembly of which the Earl of Chatham declared, 
with equal justice and generosity, from his seat in Parliament, that 
" for solidity and reasoning, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclu- 
sion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation, or body 
of men can stand in preference to the general Congress at Philadel- 
phia." 

1 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

of the whole Congress, and after much subsequent de- 
bate, it was farther resolved on the 10th of June that a 
committee be appointed to prepare a declaration in ac- 
cordance with the resolution. On the next day this 
trust was confided to five members, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. 
J. Adams, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and INIr. R. R. 
Livingston, who on the fourth of the ensuing July an- 
nounced the result of their conference. Their report 
was promptly accepted and the Continental Congress 
forthwith published to the world that Declaration of 
Independence^ which proclaimed the birth of a new 
republic and at the same time affirmed the great prin- 
ciples on which it was to rest. 

On that epoch-making day, after the discussion of some 
matters of minor interest, the following resolution was 
passed ; — 

" Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. 
Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal 
for the United States of America." 

It was most fit in every way that Franklin should be 
placed at the head of this committee ; and no one of its 
members was more worthy than he of the distinctive 
title attached to his name in tliis resolution. At that 
period, though he bore his threescore and ten lightly, 
and was leading a life of endless activity, which in- 
cluded every form of mental strain and of physical 
endurance, he was the patriarch of Congress and by 
far the oldest of its body. As the average age of its 
members was but forty-five, he naturally impressed them 
as a fine type of well-preserved vigor ; and none could 
look upon his features without regarding them as the 
transparent symbols of a wise, earnest, and benignant 

1 Bancroft says, " Jefferson drafted the declaration and submitted 
it separately to Franklin and John Adams. It was the genuine effu- 
sion of the soul of the country at that time." 

2 



FRANKLIN AND HIS DEGREE 

soul, lit as with the inner light of genial goodness and 
hicrh endeavor. 

None begrudged Franklin his solitary title, though 
no other member is thus honored on the records, and 
this in spite of the fact that the collective wisdom and 
patriotism of '76 were well endowed with honorary 
epithets, notwithstanding their comparative youth. The 
lifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence 
included seven judges, four M.D.'s, one clergyman, and 
four colonels among them, while Matthew Thornton, of 
New Hampshire, Avas M.D., colonel, and Chief Justice of 
the Court of Common Pleas at one and the same time. 
Yet the Congressional records disclose the fact that all 
these titles were carefully ignored by the members in 
their public transactions, while that of Franklin, like " a 
star, when only one is shining in the sky," shone the 
more brightly from the contrast, and seemed the proper 
tribute to his bright and inspiring presence. 

For this honor Franklin was originally indebted, not 
to his own country, or to any of its institutions, un- 
happily, but to the University of St. Andrews ^ in Scot* 
land, which in February, 1759, conferred on him the 
degree of LL.D.^ Though tracing its origin back to a 

^ St. Andrews wag founded in 1413 and was the offspring of six 
bulls under the auspices of Benedict XIII., one of three competitive 
pontiffs, each of whom cursed and excommunicated his rivals as anti- 
christs. Mr. Andrew Lang terms it " the child of many bulls, written 
in wonderfully bad Latin." 

2 This degree is represented in Franklin's diploma, and that cor- 
rectly, by the words: " Jiu-is Utriusque Doctor," or Doctor of the 
Canon and of the Civil Law, 

Of late years there has been much discussion at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge in regard to the actual meaning of this symbol, LL.D., bnt the 
custom of St. Andrews in this matter is of such remote antiquity and 
has been so persistently practised without molestation from any 
sovereign or other power, as in the case of Henry VIII. and the two 
English universities, that the identity of J.U.D. and LL.D. ought 
to be set forever at rest. It was certainly so regarded at St. Andrews 

3 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

remote antiquity, St. Andrews had at that time reached 
the \ery lowest point of its whole career. " Pining in 
decay and struggling for life," it was a ruinous and 
ix)verty-stricken institution, attended by about seventy 
lads and young men, the great majority of whom were 
the sons of farmers or of butchers, bakers, or other 
tradesmen who would have done far better to pursue 
their fathers' occupations, or to emigrate to America. 
Already familiar with the cruel exactions of penury 
under every shape,^ they found at St. Andrews a still 

from its earliest foundation, as appears from the records, and this 
view undoubtedly was derived from the practice of the continental 
universities, on which its organization was based. Most assuredly, 
its authorities never regarded LL.D. as signifying a Doctor of the Laws 
of Justinian, as Professor Clarke asserts it to be. The absurdity of 
this is sufficiently shown by the form of their degree. This appears 
in the entry of the book given by Franklin to the Bodleian in 1762 (v. 
page 100), to which the sub-librarian appended the words "now 
LL.D.," obviously in reference to the honor received from St. 
Andrews and in distinction from the D.C.L. of Oxford. Professor 
Clarke's view seems to be contradicted by his own words. See 

Cambridge Legal Studies, by E. C. Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., Regius 
Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge. 

P. 47. "In 1352 the degrees [of Cambridge] are spoken of as w 
jure civili, canmiico or utroquc,'''' i. e. in the civil law, the canonical, or 
in both." 

P. 57. " Jus was apparently a general term applicable to Canon or 
Civil Law, and, perhaps, when used without a distinctive official 
epithet, including the two." 

P. 58. "The Oxford official styles were nearly identical with our 
own. Legum or in Icgihus occurs little, if at all, the regular phrase 
being in jure civili (rarely ccsario), or canonico, sometimes in jure 
utroque, instead of in jure civili et cavmiico.'''' 

1 Many of the facts contained in this description of St. Andrews 
the writer has gathered from the contemporary reminiscences of the 
Rev. Percival Stockdale. He was a needy bursar on the Wilkie 
foundation at St. Andrews from 1754 to 1756, and one of the more 
notable productions of that university. As student, tutor, soldier, 
clergyman, naval chaplain, essayist, translator, historian, reviewer, 
traveller, linguist, bookseller's hack, diarist, and poet, he achieved a 
marvellous mediocrity in each of these specialties. 

4 



POVERTY OF THE STUDENTS 

lower deep. Overworked and underfed, living cbiefly 
on oatmeal, herrings, potatoes, and buttermilk, they 
often di'udged — and that gladly — for threepence an 
hour at manual labor outside the walls. Since few 
could afford even such dim radi^lice as might come from 
a tallow-dip, they were fain, during the long winter 
evenings of that high latitude, to absorb their Greek and 
Latin by the aid of the still duller emanations of smoul- 
dering peat^ Their academic garb was red and of coarse 
material, which at times was thinly underlaid by the 
cotton decencies of life, to soothe cutaneous irritation. 

The establishment was under the supervision of the 
Rev. Thomas TuUideph — in his youth a private dragoon 
— and, as Dr. Alexander Carlyle says, " in bad health 
and low spirits," who received for his services as prin- 
cipal sixty pounds per annum, and Scotch pounds at that, 
being assisted by a staff of ten professors, whose stipends 
were even more meagre than his own. It is thus ap- 
parent that the size of St. Andi-ews was by no means in 
proportion to its years. Like Washington's famous 
wine-glass, it was the smallest for its age that had ever 
been seen. 

Never were the demands of the stomach narrowed 
down to a finer point than at St. Andrews. To use the 
graphic expression of Dr. Johnson, "Every one got a 
mouthful, but no one a bellyful ! " Meat the students 

1 At 56 degrees north the sun in winter hardly rises at all from its 
thick environment of mist before ten o'clock and the evenings are 
fearfully long. 

A writer in the " Comhill Magazine," vol. i. p. 3GC, gives an inter- 
esting description of St. Andrews in the eighteenth century. Accord- 
ing to him, though " fully one-half of the students were steeped in 
poverty," there was no reason to dread actual starvation, as "one 
hundred fresh herrings could be got for sixpence and a splendid 
dinner of fish might be purchased for a penny." It was apparently 
the small fishes and the loaves that saved the multitude then, as in 
the days of their patron saint. 

5 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

seldom or never saw, and even the cheap and nauseous 
conglomeration of a haggis, so seductive to the average 
Scotch palate, was mostly beyond their means, yet never 
did Mr. Fronde's allusion to " the stern discipline of 
poverty " have less to show as the result of its workings, 
for the roll of the alumni of St. Andiews during the 
eighteenth century reveals few men of talent or distinc- 
tion, and the only apparent lesson to be learned there- 
from is an illustration of the wisdom of Solomon's saying, 
" The destruction of the poor is their poverty." Had 
Mr. Fronde's apothegm been of universal application, the 
graduates of St. Andrews ought to have numbered in 
their ranks not a few mammoths of triumphal success ; 
after all is said, the dictum of Frederick the Great 
that "■ the belly is the source and foundation of all 
operations " still remains true, and it will not be thought 
remarkable that the only really great "operation" of 
the University of St. Andrews during the eighteenth 
century was the bestowal of its degree upon Benjamin 
Franklin. 

The latent savagery and boyishness of the students — 
those children of the soil, those crude types of the do- 
mestic zoology of their native land — sought a charac- 
teristic vent at the end of each term by breaking every 
window in the University buildings. This custom, 
which had existed far beyond the memory of man, had 
long passed into a precedent and so acquired the force 
and tenacity of a prescriptive right, like numberless 
other evils in their little island. The inevitable destruc- 
tion thus achieved the authorities were quite powerless 
to prevent, and they had long been wont to compromise 
the outrage and to forestall the impending damage by 
an annual assessment of five shillings, i. e. a crown, on 
the students. In this way, one precedent had established 
another, and the students seem never to have had the 

6 



REV. JOHN WESLEY 

wit to see that an hour's noisy and destructive hilarity- 
cost them a sum that few could afford. This barbaric 
and senseless caprice was continued till after the year 
1780. 

The famous John Wesley was an indignant witness 
of the effects of this peculiar custom, and gives a de- 
scription thereof in his Journal under date of May 27th, 
1776, when he was visiting the place. 

"What is left of St. Leonard's College," he writes, 
"is only a heap of ruins. Two colleges remain. One of 
them has a tolerable square, but all the windows are 
broken, like those of a brothel. We were informed the 
students do this before they leave the college. Where 
are their blessed governors in the mean time? Are they 
all fast asleep ? The other college is a mean building, 
but has a handsome library, newly erected. In the two 
colleges, we learned, are about seventy students." 

" They come to their colleges in November and return 
home in May, so that they may study six months in the 
year. Oh ! where was the common sense of those who 
instituted such colleges?" 

Mr. George Monck Berkeley, the author of sundry 
poems, was a student at St. Andrews for three years 
and a half, having begun his career there in 1781, when 
he was eighteen years of age. In 1797 his writings, 
under the title of " Poems by the late George Monck 
Berkeley," were published in London.^ They were 
edited by his mother, Mrs. E. Berkeley, who in a pre- 
face gives a long and minute account of her son's life at 
the University. The allusions this contains to the 
extreme poverty of some of the students and to their 
semi-barbarity are very interesting, while her description 
of the window-breaking and its consequences is quite 

^ Of this book there is but one copy now existing, so far as I can 
discover, and that is in the library of the British Museum. 

7 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

pathetic. I venture to make a rather long extract from 
her narrative, beginning on page cccxlviii. 

" When Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of St. 
Andrews, one of the college officers called upon him to 
deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. 
Mr. Berkeley said that, ' as he should reside in his father's 
house, it was little likely he should break any windows, 
having never that he remembered broke one in his whole 
life.' He was answered that he would do it at St. Andrews. 
He therefore made the deposit, the cause of which he some- 
time after learned. On the rising of the session, several 
of the students said: ' Now for the windows ! Come, it is 
time to set off ; let us sally forth ! ' Mr. Berkeley, being 
inquired for, asked what was to be done ? They with one 
voice replied, 'Why, to break every window in college.' 
' For what reason ? ' < Oh, no reason, but that it has 
always been done from time immemorial.' Mr. Berkeley 
sedately replied that he begged to be excused joiuing the 
party ; having never, when a boy at Eton, and sometimes 
with more wine in his head than was good for him, per- 
formed such a valiant feat, he should feel himself exceed- 
ingly ashamed to be guilty of it as a young man. He 
spoke so sensibly on the subject that the practice was 
from that time entirely given up, and has probably never 
been revived. 

" The money, however, continued to be collected, as the 
following little anecdote will show. A very good kind of 
man, formerly coachman at Lord Balcarras's, the college 
porter, was the collector. He one day told a very intimate 
friend of Mr. Berkeley's, the young Laird of Kincaldrum, 
* I am just come from a poor student indeed. I went for 
the window croon ; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay 
it, saying he had brought but a croon to keep him all the 
session, and he had spent sixpence of it ; so I have got only 
four-and-six. How he is to live, I can't tell, for they are 
very poor.' Away flew the amiable young Laird, saying, 
' I must make a collection for him.' Amongst the students 

8 



FRANKLIN'S FAME AT ST. ANDREWS 

he first met Mr. Halket, eldest son of Sir J. Halket, a 
beloved Scotch friend of Mt. Monck Berkeley. This 
charming youth said, 'Here, take theso few shillings; it 
is all I have till I hear from home again.' The young 
Laird said, * Such an one will give a shilling, and such an 
one half a crown, and I will make my dear Berkeley give 
a crown.' The idea of his saying 'make' diverted the 
whole University, who all knew Mr. Berkeley's wonderful 
liberality to the poor. He soon met Mr. Berkeley, who 
not only tossed out the crown, but said, ' We will make a 
good collection ; go you. Bower (the young Laird's name), 
to the Scotch and I to the English ! ' Mr. Berkeley posted 
home and made his father, mother, and aunt subscribe 
largely, as also all the English students. The subscription 
■when closed was a very noble one. This poor youth was 
the son of a laborer, who having two fields about eight 
miles from St. Andrews, kept three cows. One cow was 
sold to dress him for the University and to put the 
lamented croon in his pocket to purchase coals. All the 
lower students study by firelight. He brought with him 
a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted butter, on which 
he was to subsist from the 20th of October till the 20th of 
May, the space of seven months, but for the lucky affair 
of the croofi and the lovely nature of the young Laird of 
Kincaldrum, as accomplished as amiable. In what is called 
in Scotland * an high dance ' this young gentleman could 
keep himself more than half a minute, near a minute, in 
air. No one who has not seen a company of Highland 
soldiers dance can form ani/ idea of it, more than our great 
grandsires could of electricity before Dr. Franklin's time." 

The last sentence is especially interesting as showing 
how widely spread was Franklin's fame in 1797, and 
liow it still tenaciously lingered in the purlieus of St. 
Andrews. 

IMuch allowance should be made for the uncouth 
roughness of the students at St Andrews, as well as 

9 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

for their poverty, since both were the natural outcome 
of the general state of the country at that time, which, 
one would tliink, would have made it, as in the days 
of Macbeth, "almost afraid to know itself." The uni- 
versity was in a measure an epitome of the whole land, 
the condition of which has been well described by the 
industrious and accurate pen of Mr. Smiles : — 

" At the middle of the last century, Scotland was a very 
poor couutry. It consisted mostly of mountain and moor- 
laud; and the little arable land it contaiued was badly 
cultivated. Agriculture was almost a lost art. 'Except 
in a few instances,' says a writer in the ' Farmers' Maga- 
zine ' of 1803, ' Scotland was little better than a barren 
waste.' Cattle could with difficulty be kept alive ; and the 
people in some parts of the country were often on the 
brink of starvation. The people were hopeless, miserable, 
and without spirit, like the Irish in their very worst times. 
After the wreck of the Darien expedition, there seemed to 
be neither skill, enterprise, nor money left in the country. 
What resources it contained were altogether undeveloped. 
There was little communication between one place and 
another, and such roads as existed were for the greater 
part simply impassable." ^ 

The truth appears to be that in 1759 the greater part 
of Scotland was in a state but slightly removed from 
barbarism, and, in fact, there was not to be found within 
its limits a wheeled conveyance of any sort, except 
the rounfh-and-tumble carts that bore the mails. All 
Franklin's travels were on horseback.^ Such money 

1 Men of Invention and Industry, by Samuel Smiles, 1SS4, chap. v. 

^ As late as May 5, 1799, Sydney Smith wrote of the Scotch 
vehicles as "in so mutilated a state that it is not only discreditable 
and inconvenient, but positively unsafe to ride in them. We were 
put into chaises with half a bottom, with no glasses to the windows 
and fastenings to the door," etc. — Life of Sydney Smith, by Stuaiit 
J. Reii), p. 90. 

In 1701 the Scotch spoke English with such a rude and uncouth 

10 



SCOTCH BARBARISM 

and culture as existed were apparently only in the Uni- 
versity towns, like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, 
but even in these savagery was not lacking and pes- 
tiferous slums reeked with the condensed corruption of 
the past and the daily accessions of the present. Odors 
the reverse of those of sanctity pervaded the best streets 
of Edinburgh, and when Bozzy preceded Dr. Johnson 
along the High Street, the latter " grumbled in my ear, 
'I smell you in the dark.'" In 1761 Wesley was also 
in Edinburgh. " How can it be suffered," he writes in 
liis journal, " that all manner of filth should still be 
thrown into this street continually? How long shall 
the capital city of Scotland, yea, and the chief street of 
it, stink worse than a common sewer ? " 

In those days the Scotch were generally considered 
outside barbarians, and their names in this country were 
generally supposed to be " Norval." In the original 
draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson 
wrote, " At this very time, too, they are permitting their 
Chief Magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our 
common Blood but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to 

pronunciation that they could not be understood south of the Tweed. 
Yet they were very anxious to learn, with the land of promise lying 
so amply spread out before them, and the father of Sheridan went 
to Edinburgh, when his fortunes were at a very low ebb, and taught 
hundreds of ladies and gentlemen how to speak English, so that it 
need not resemble the notes of their own bagpipes. 

When Hume, in 1765, after the publication of his history, went to 
London, "with his corpulent body, his imbecile, fat face and his 
broad Scotch accent," Horace Walpole wrote, " I defy them to under- 
stand any language he speaks." 

Tom Moore in his Diary gives a typical instance of those jcux 
d^espril which Fox was wont to fire off with such quick-springing wit 
for the benefit of his guests. In this case it was also for the benefit 
of the Scotch, as it shows how much the English thought of them 
especially during the latter half of the eighteenth century. 

" I would not be my first for all of my second that is contained in 
my third." Aits. Scotland. 

11 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

invado and deluge us with Blood," There was one 
action, however, which Sandy and liis friends had the 
Avit, or the luck, to keep out of, though it was after- 
wards immortalized by Burns, like Washington and 
Franklin : a tribute, by the way, that these both richly 
deserved from their possession of such a large measure 
of that quality, so peculiarly Scotch, called common 
sense, which gave us the final victory, — thanks to 
AVashington, — and this was the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
No Scots officiated at that ceremony, and if they had, 
they would have found no " fragments to gather up," 
but the empty pods of General Howe's scarlet runners.-' 

In 1776 Dr. Johnson was induced by Boswell to dine 
at his rooms in company with the obnoxious Wilkes 
and the still more obnoxious Arthur Lee, a rebel and an 
American. The latter mentioned some Scotch who had 
taken possession of a barren part of America and won- 
dered why they should choose it. " W^hy, sir," said 
Johnson, " barrenness is comparative, and the Scotch 
would not know it to be barren." 

Johnso7i. " If one inan in Scotland gets possession of 
X 2,000, what remains for the rest of the nation ?" 

Wilkes. "Thurot plundered the seven Scotch isles 
and embarked with three-and-sixpence." 

" Wilkes remarked that among all the bold flights of 
Shakespeare's imagination, the boldest was making Bir- 
nam Wood come to Dunsinane, creating a wood where 
there never was a shrub." 

Franklin, like Johnson, and in truth like almost 
every one else, had a sort of reserved admiration for 
Wilkes in his heart of hearts, especially as a contrast to 

^ I am informed by the English "War Office that not a single com- 
pany in all the fourteen regiments that were represented at Bunker 
Hill, or " Charles Town Heights," as it is termed in the despatches 
of General Gage, was enlisted in Scotland. 

12 



GEORGE III. AND WILKES 

George III. whom he hated with all the hate of which 
he was capable, and said that " he believed if the king 
had had a bad character and John Wilkes a good one, 
the latter might have turned the former out of his 
kingdom." ^ 

This view of Franklin's was hardly justifiable under 
the circumstances, for King George's throne was based 
on a great many solid and deeply laid foundations in 
the hearts of his people. What revolution could hope 
to succeed in England against a monarch who could 
name every ship in his navy ; had the articles of war at 
his fingers' ends ; paid his bills every quarter ; wore 
none but clothes of English manufacture ; was careful 
to attend church every Sunday, prayer-book in hand, 
sleeping devoutly and decorously through the sermon 
without even a snore, serenely confident that the Lord 
and the English nation knew that the king could do no 
wrong and could n't go astray ; and who, to cap the 
climax of his subjects' esteem, had a teeming wife and 
fifteen childi-en of his own begetting that went to church 
with him, i. e. as long as he was able to compel them 
to do so.^ 

To these tactful and popular accomplishments the mon- 
arch added a truly royal faculty for distorting the king's 
English into shapes peculiar to himself and before un- 

1 Private Diary of Lord Fitzmaurice, July 27, 1784. 

2 How could Wilkes ever have expected to dethrone a sovereign 
so regally endowed and who had been thus exalted to the skies in 
the "Gentleman's Magazine" ? 

*' Greatest, sure, of kings is he, 
Glorious in sublime decree, 

Whom smiling liberty obeys." 

A ruler to whose refined sensibilities the same magazine was so 
obsequious that when it felt constrained to print our Declaration of 
Independence, the word " tyrant " was invariably replaced by 

*'t ," which signified no more than a comet without a tail. 

13 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

known. lie spelled like Mrs. Franklin and lier Parisian 
substitute, Madame Ilelvetius,^ and liad as great a dis- 
dain for punctuation points as Lord Timothy Dexter. 
At his hands " bottles " became " botills," " champagne " 
masqueraded as " shannipane," with many other ortho- 
graphic twists ad infinitum, of a number of which illus- 
trations are given on tlie opposite page from a private 
note-book of George the Third himself and in his own 
august hand, which is now in the Library of the British 
Museum. For the privilege of copying this memorial, 
and for many other courtesies most kindly and freely 
granted, I take this opportunity to express my sincere 
thanks to Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, the Principal 
Librarian of the British Museum. By this it is evident 
that he had been careful to conciliate his Scotch sub- 
jects, then so largely in the ascendant, by looking after 
the " fragments," — to wit, the cord, the packing, etc., 
— and also by the purchase, according to his well- 
known custom, of claret and other wines that had gone 
into liquidation ; all which shows how many things are 
necessary for the composition of a truly great English 
potentate. 

This wine-card may easily be thought genuine by those 
who know of George's unkingly frugality. Though, 
according to Burke, in "Present Discontents," his 
Majesty had an annual income of one million pounds, 
he often dined on chops and a pudding and ordered but 
four pounds of soup meat at a time. Such a thrifty 
potentate would naturally look after the twine and the 
packing. Thus the king's subjects could " read their 
monarch in his port," to quote Dr. Young's eulogy of 

^ Each of these charmers seems to have cast a spell over Franklin, 
both the original and the semi-detached one, though he was always 
true to the former, — that is, according to his idea of the word, — 
and nothing ever came between them but the Atlantic Ocean. 

14 









! 



^^ 









■:>-■: 






A 












THE KING'S ENGLISH 

George II., no less than in his spelling, as they " looked 
upon the wine when it was read.''^ 

This memorandum book bears marks of long usage, 
and was evidently for years his Majesty's constant 
pocket companion. It is four inches b}^ two in size, 
bound in crimson morocco and profusely covered with 
devices in gold, wherever any space could be found, 
including the rose, thistle, and shamrock. It is fastened 
by a silver stylus, passing through loops projecting from 
foiu" circular bosses of massive silver, the stylus being 
for the purpose of making upon the leaves of asses' 
skin characters that could be .afterwards erased. But 
two pages now bear any writing and this in ink, though 
the others still show signs, quite illegible, of former 
characters. 

Apropos of George III.'s English, a good &ioTj is 
told in Mrs. Delanj^'s entertaining " Life and Corre- 
spondence." In June, 1787, Mrs. Delany was occupy- 
ing an apartment at Windsor Castle, as the guest of the 
royal family, and was receiving a visit from her friend, 
Lliss Port. "One day during Mrs. Delany's absence 
Miss Port heard a loiock at her door. ' Who is there ? ' 
A voice replied, * It is me ! ' Then said she, ' ]\Ie may 
stay where he is.' Knocked again, and she again said, 
' Who is there ? ' The voice answered, ' It is me.' 
Then said she, ' Me is impertinent and may go about his 
business.' Upon the laiocking being repeated the third 
time, some person who was with her advised her to 
open the door and see who it could be. When, to her 
great astonishment, who should it be but the K. him- 
self ? All she could utter was, ' What shall I say ? ' 
' Nothing at all,' said H. M. ' You was very right to 
be cautious who you admitted.' ^ 

1 There is one curious resemblance between George III. and "Walt 
Wliitman: each was " supra grammaticam," like the Emperor Sigis- 

15 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

It was only late in life that George III. began to betray 
incipient symptoms of acquiring some little knowledge 
of his mother tongue, but the effort was too much for 
him, his mind was upset, and insanity set in.^ Lord 
Eldon said : " On one occasion his Majesty, when he 
came out of the House of Lords after opening the Ses- 
sion of Parliament, inquired, ' Did I deliver the speech 
well ? ' ' Very well. Sir,' was Lord Eldon's answer. *■ I 
am glad of it,' replied the king, ' for there Avas nothing 
in it.' " 2 His speech was like his wig, and the totit 
ensemble must have been very harmonious. His Majesty 
had at least one virtue, and that was candor. 

When the king in 1789, had begun to show signs of 
his — temporary — recovery, he proposed to go in pro- 
cession to St. Paul's, to offer up devout thanks in his 
own behalf and in that of the nation. Upon this his 
grateful subjects burst into song : — 

" God bless me ! what a thing I 
Have you heard that the king 

Goes to St. Paul's ? 
Good Lord ! and when he 's there, 
He '11 roll his eyes in prayer, 
To make poor Johnny stare 

At this fine thing." 

mund. "Witness this choice morccau of futile imbecility from the 

latter's pen: — 

" Camarado close ! 
you and me at last — and us two oul}'! " 

Luckily, however, there is always "a lower deep to which the hell 
we suffer seems a heaven." In Dorsetshire they say: " Her ain't a 
callin' o' we; us don't belong to she." This is a comfort to sinners 
and a warning to saints to " keep off the grass." 

1 As Mr. Dooley says, "Wanst a king, always a king. An', if he 
don't do annything, he 's a dummy, an', if he does do annything, 
he 's crazy." 

2 As may be inferred from this incident, which took place on 
Nov. 2.3, 1802, the king was both confidential and intimate with his 
Lord Chancellor, and during the latter's short tenure of office even 
displayed decided affection for him. 

16 







' -\s • ^ • 5i? • jjf » 'H '^o ' 







COVERS OF PKtVATR NOTEr.OOK OF GEOHGE TUI-: TIIIKl), NOW IN TIIK lUUTISII MUSEUM 



THE QUEEN AND BISHOP BROOKS 

The church-going business was generally obnoxious 
to all the royal offspring. Princess Elizabeth with her 
fluent and graphic pen writes to Lady Harcourt, " Wind- 
sor, Oct. 3, 1792. We began going to Chaple this 
morning ; it must be wholesome, it is so disagreeable. 
However, this is a life of trials. God knows it is, so I 
hope to be rewarded in the next." ^ 

Even at the present day there seems to be very little 
hilarity in the life of the English Court. When Bishop 
Brooks was the guest of the Queen he wrote, "I am 
staying with a very respectable, but very dull family." 
No wonder her INIajesty thought him " too fast" in his 
preaching. In such an atmosphere as always envelops 
her, she naturally found it hard to " catch on " to an 
avalanche. She thought she had gone quite far enough, 
and had met him at least half-way, when she sent a 
message that he was "excused from tights." The 
advent at dinner in the royal entourage of an American 
bishop "too fast" and without " tights " must have set 
her Majesty's teeth on edge and have recalled the 
appearance of Minister Roland before Louis XVI. in 
shoe-strings. However, after the poet Longfellow 
shook hands with her avec empressement^ she might 
have been supposed to be prepared for anything from 
over the water, where " nought but suffers a sea change 

1 The poor thing's reward In this -world, alas ! was to be married 
at the age of forty-eight to the Landgrave of Hesse Hombourg, "a 
gross corpulent person of enormous dimensions, forever smoking and 
smelling of tobacco in days when tobacco was detestable to most 
persons. He snored at the theatres d toute outrancc. You never 
saw such a disgusting object." Our minister, Richard Rush, was 
a guest at her wedding, and saw her thrown away, as he relates in 
his "Memoranda." She wrote to Lady Harcourt, "I do not find 
Windsor a Paradise," but when she reached Hamburg and found 
herself linked for life to her great brute of a husband in his dismal, 
forlorn little schloss, she discovered that there vere worse places in 
the world than Windsor. 

2 17 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

into something rich and strange." ^ Even American 
poets have a way of becoming deferentially kind to the 
potentates of other lands not so greatly favored as our 
own, like another of onr litterateurs^ who took the 
hand of Pius IX. with still warmer fervor, doubtless 
prompted by a courteous concession that though only 
a Pope, his host ought to be welcomed with a genial air 
and not to be subjected to a chilling sense of republican 
superiority. Sad to say, he was allowed to adjourn sine 
die, from sheer lack of papal appreciation. 

Even Queen Charlotte, who would never allow her 
own children to sit in her presence, but kept them 
standing during her long and tiresome whist parties till 
they actually fell asleep from fatigue, — even she admits 
the portentous dulness of the life about her in a very 
confidential note to one of her intimates in 1789. 

" You may apply our stile of life to this, — 

* They Eat, they Drank, they Slept ; what then ? 
They Slept, they Eat, they Drank again.' " 

From this it appears that the queen knew about as 
much English as her sovereign lord and master. 

George III. had a son whom he named Augustus 
Frederick, afterwards Duke of Sussex. He was the 
sixth son and the ninth child of his prolific father. He 
was also a decided liberal, or even radical, for that day, 

1 Her Majesty, as usual, was able to hold her own on this occa- 
sion and had the last word, like her sex in general, even at their 
marriage ceremony. As the author of " Excelsior" backed out, she 
availed herself of the opportunity to say, " Your works are very 
popular with my servants, Mr. Longfellow." Thus she indemnified 
herself for the liberty, the poetic license, that had been taken with 
her sacred person. And yet at a later date her Majesty did her best 
to seem flattered when Tennyson said to her, " What an excellent 
king Prince Albert would have made! " Her interview with Carlyle 
was still more unsatisfactory. Really, on the whole, when poetry 
rises, royalty had better prepare to set as quietly as possible. 

18 



THE DUKE AND THE COMPASS 

with a healthy and creditable distaste for his malodorous 
brothers and an aversion to royalty in general. ^ Being 
thus affected, he developed a natural liking for Franklin, 
all the more so from a knowledge of his royal father's 
hatred for him. The British Museum has many of the 
Bibles and other works from his fine library. Among 
these is the " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of 
Benjamin Franklin," large paper, published in London, 
in 1818, by his grandson, William Temple Franklin. 
This book is embellished with marginal notes in the 
duke's own hand, very much of the same value as the 
promissory notes which Daniel Webster was wont to 
lavish upon his loyal and devoted constituents, when he 
had got into the den of lions and could find no way out 
except by the help of a high protective tariff. They 
are not worth publishing, but one of them is so ex- 
quisitely original, characteristic, and recherche that I 
venture to give it here, as it has never been in print. 
Franklin writes, vol. i. p. 31, " Passy, May 7, 1781. 
To M. Count de Gebelin. The compass appears to 
have been long known in China before it was known 
in Europe." The ducal comment on these words 
of Franklin is this serious and weighty reflection: 
"Whether the translation be correct or not, I cannot 
say, but in the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles 
the word Compass is made use of." 

If the reader will turn to the chapter cited he will find 
the tliirteenth verse to begin thus: "And from thence 
we fetched a compass and came to Rhegium," ^ This is 

1 Our minister, Mr. Kush, saw the duke in 1820 and was much 
astonished at his liberal ideas and the ardor for constitutional liberty 
that pervaded his conversation, which " rose sometimes to eloquent 
boldness." 

2 It is not often that Saint Paul, Franklin, the Duke of Sussex, and 
Miss Martineau are found in the same pew, but the following anec- 
dote of the last-named brings them all together for the moment in a 

19 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

clearly a case of heredity, and its quality recalls the 
familiar interview of the Duke's illustrious father with 
an apple-dumpling, on which his comment was "how, 
how the devil got the apple in ? " ^ The duke considered 

jolly quartette. Mr. James Payn, in " Rome Literary Recollections," 
says, "We were once caught in a mountain mist above the Duddon 
valley, and, after much wandering round and round, found ourselves 
in the same place from which we started. ' 1 wish we had brought a 
compass,' cried Miss Martineau, and when somebody suggested that 
we had ' fetched ' one, I never saw an elderly lady more moved to 
mirth." 

The compass of Lablache, the famous basso profondo, was two 
full octaves, and thus far more " fetching," than even that of Saint 
Paul. 

N. B. This note is from tiie author and not from the Duke of 
Sussex. 

1 " i Very astonishing indeed ! — strange thing ! ' 
(Turning the dumpling round, rejoin'd the King.) 
"T is most extraordinary then, all this is — 
It beats Pinetti's conjuring all to pieces — 
Strange I should never of a dumpling dream ! 
But, Goody, tell me where, where, where 's the seam ? ' 

" ' Sir, there 's no seam,' (quoth she) ; ' I never knew 
That folks did apple dumplings sew.' 
' No ! ' (cry'd the stareing Monarch with a grin) 
' How, how the devil got the apple in ? ' " 

Thus it seems but natural that the king should have preferred the 
dumpling-shaped knobs of Franklin's rival, Dr. Wilson, to the pointed 
ones designed by Franklin himself. His Majesty never could see 
the point of anything but a bayonet. 

The apple-dumpling of George III. long served as a link to draw 
him closer to the hearts of his people as an endearing symbol and a 
type of his true quality. It bore the same relation to him as the 
cherry-tree to Washington, being full of personal suggestion and 
rich with revelation of royal character. It is interesting to notice 
the tenacity with which this simple idyl still clings to the English 
heart and the interest displayed in it even in our own day. In 1840 
the brother of Prince Albert, Ernest II., Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotba, 
was travelling in Portugal and writing long letters to the prince and 
Queen Victoria, whose radiant honeymoon was still at the full, 
though they had been married nearly a year and a half. In one of 
those from Lisbon, on the sixth of June, he says, " The cooking is 

20 



A CLERICAL OPIATE 

himself a great expert in Biblical literature, and had over 
one thousand different editions of the Bible in his library 
of fifty thousand volumes. If these were endowed 
with many notes like the above, their pages must have 
been as full of freaks as a dime museum. As a com- 
mentator, the duke would probably have distinctly 
resembled Dr. Young, the author of " Night Thoughts," 
who used " to explain a thing till all men doubted it." 
Dr. Young: left instructions that all his sermons should 
be burned after his death, being perhaps apprehensive 
that they might be buried with him so that he would 
never rise again. The author of these thin and tedious 
elaborations had, however, one very decided attribute 
of the Deity, for it is said in the Psalms that " so he 
giveth his beloved sleep." He often reduced George II. 
to a state of complete insensibility, though this is not 
saying much to one who knows how little sense of any 
sort that potentate ever possessed. 

I may here add that George III. certainly had " the 
courage of his opinions," with the single exception of 
his own private views in regard to Shakespeare. When 
he confidentially observed to Miss Burney, " Was there 
ever such stuff as great part of Shakespeare ? only one 
must not say so," ^ one is conscious of a little royal ap- 

particularly good, as it bears a great resemblance to our beloved 
household fare ; I have already been surprised to see dumplings." 

Eager as Duke Ernest must have been to ingratiate himself with 
the bride, he could hardly have chosen a subject that would form a 
closer bond of union than the dumpling of her fathers, which re- 
vealed such an intimate knowledge of her family affairs and of the 
peculiar tastes and attributes of her illustrious ancestor. It was all 
the more effective in that he took occasion to suggest his own interest 
in the same delicacy and thus betokened a sympathetic interchange 
of gift. 

1 How different from this royal shuffling was the attitude of Sfrs. 
John Adams towards Shakespeare! With her uncompromising and 
plucky independence, she had no idea of hiding her light under a 

21 



IIISTOllIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

prehension, as if his Majesty felt that he had stepped 
outside of his prerogatives and was trying to dam up 
the Falls of Niagara, or some other on-rushing grandeur. 
As to all the " tithes of mint, anise and cunnnin," how- 
ever, he was every inch a king, and Saint Paul himself 
could not have taken more pains that all things should 
be done "decently and in order," as one whose great- 
ness was yearly sung by his laureate. Poet Pye. If any 
courtier blew his nose, instead of wij^ing it ; or laughed, 
except in his sleeve ; or coughed, except in his stomach, 
— the royal precincts speedily knew him no more. The 
monarch might not be able to " sweat out " the inner 
mystery of an apple dumpling, even though he gave his 
whole mind to it, but he was quick to detect any flaw 
in the foundation of the structure on which British 
majesty was reared. There are kings and kings, but 
not many at present " after the high Roman fashion," 
like Vespasian, who thought it his duty to die standing. 
The aspect of royalty has greatly changed since the 
good old times. Queen Elizabeth, the "good Queen 
Bess," who was born childless that her countiy might 

bushel, and was quite ready to " have it out " with any human being, 
male or female, alive or dead. Though she did go so far as to sign 
herself " Portia " in her letters, she had no idea of suffering the 
shade of Shakespeare to take any advantage of that weakness. She 
tackled the poet in the same way that the Duke of Wellington at- 
tacked the French language, which he said he " spoke with the 
greatest intrepidity." When she and her husband in 17S6 were re- 
presenting this country in England, where they were grounded, — in 
the republican faith, — "remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow," 
like a pair of stranded icebergs, Mrs. Adams wrote to her sister, Mrs. 
Shaw: " Much of Shakespeare's language is so uncouth that it sounds 
very harsh. He has beauties which are unequalled, but I should 
suppose they might be rendered much more agreeable for the stage by 
alterations. I saw Mrs. Siddons a few evenings ago in ' Macbeth,' 
a play, you recollect, full of horror. She supported her part with 
great propriety, but she is too great to be put in so detestable a 
character." 

22 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 

call her mother, and who " dared do all that might 
become a man," but was often obliged by the force of 
circumstances beyond her control to refrain from grati- 
fying her inclinations, and this notwithstanding the fact 
that some years ago the Prince of Wales, naturally eager 
to exploiter the connection, in one of his bursts of post- 
prandial eloquence, did warmly eulogize her as " my an- 
cestor," — Queen Elizabeth, who wrote to James VI. 
" Think me, I pray you, not ignorant what becometh a 
king [z. e. herself] to do," was wont to ride in august 
state and say, " God save my people." Nowadays 
monarchs wander to and fro in a furtive, elusive, 
and deprecatory fashion, and when they feel im- 
pelled to utterance, merely intimate, "Please don't 
handle," or " Kindly refrain from expectorating on my 
crown." 

As Pope wrote, " A king may be a tool, a thing of 
straw; but if he serves to frighten our enemies and 
secure our property, it 's well enough ; a scarecrow is a 
thing of straw, but it protects the corn." This was 
written of the second George, for whom and for royalty 
in general, the poet in his heart of hearts felt about as 
much respect as Virgil really did for Augustus.^ It is 
not in the forests, as Franklin and Jefferson believed, 
that liberty mostly abides and thence comes forth from 
age to age for the encouragement and regeneration of 
man so persistently. It is rather in the heart of the 
true poet ; of those 

" Who utter wisdom from the central deep, 
And, listening to the inner flow of things. 
Speak to the age out of eternity." 

^ In the first canto of the Inferno, Virgil Is made to call Augustus 
" 11 buon Augusto " (the good Augustus), which, to those who appre- 
ciate the utter depravity of tliat emperor, serves to prove that even a 
great genius may fail at times to take in the situation. 

23 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The Georges were a lovely lot from many points of 
view, and exchanged the most charming amenities. 
George II., who burnt his father's will that he might 
not be bothered witli carrying out its conditions, re- 
marked of his son, Frederick, the father of George III., 
" My dear first>-born is tlie greatest ass and the greatest 
liar and the greatest canaille and the greatest beast 
in the whole world, and I heartily wish he was out of 
it." His amiable mother followed in the same strain, 
and so did his sister Amelia, who both " wished a hun- 
dred times a day that he was dead." 

In regard to the career of this insignificant source of 
parental exasperation, various facts exist to show that 
there Avas much to be said on both sides. His death 
drew forth this graphic — and for once truthful — epi- 
taph, which served as a comprehensive broadside to 
reveal the general estimate of George II. and his family 
among his subjects. It was composed by Richard 
Rawlinson, the famous topographer. 

" Here lies Fred, down among the dead ; 
Had it been his Father, Most had much rather ; 
Had it been his Brother,^ Better than any other ; 
Had it been a Sister, none would have mist her ; 
Wer't the whole generation, Happy for the nation ; 
But since it is only Fred, There is no more to be said." 

For fear lest their memories should perish, Landor 
embalmed the whole Hanover quartette in an epigram, 
a withering epitome of a century of kingly infamy, which 
the world will not willingly let die. 

" George the First was reclconed vile, 
Yiler George the Second ; 
And what mortal ever heard 

Any good of George the Third ? 
When from earth the Fourth descended, 

God be praised, the Georges ended." 

1 The Duke of Cumberland. V. "Annals of the Bodleian 
Library," by Rev. Wm. D. Macray, p. 22. 

24 



LANDOR AND SHELLEY 

And yet tliere are some persons who coolly assert that 
royalty has a soporific influence on the poets, and in- 
variably quenches the divine afflatus, as clapping a turf 
on the top of a chimney stops the draught and checks 
"the inner flow of things." 

Landor, whose distaste for royalty in general had the 
true poetic ring, entertained a peculiar aversion for 
George III. The sight of the clumsy statue of his 
Majesty, with its characteristic pig-tail, in Pall Mall 
East once drew from liim another effusion for the ex- 
clusive behoof of royalty. 

" "What is its genus, none can doubt 
Who looks but at its brow and snout." i 

To Andrew Jackson, on the contrary, the poet was 
nobly gracious and full of the most liberal appreciation. 

" How rare the sight 1 How grand ! 
Behold the golden scales of Justice stand 
"Well balanced in a maUed hand ! " 

Landor evidently had the same admiration for Jackson 
that Shelley, his fellow poet, displayed for Washington. 
" As a warrior and statesman," said Shelley, " he was 
righteous in all he did, unlike all who lived before or 
since ; he never used his power but for the benefit of 
his fellow-creatures : — 

1 As this statue is eminently suited to its subject, it has always 
been held in light esteem. A young officer once saw Major Dyer on 
his horse and said, — 

" Major, do you know what you remind mo of? " 

"No." 

" "Why, of the statue of George the Third." 

"And do you know what yoic remind me of?" was the brusque 
reply. 

"No." 

" Well, then, of a dirty little Arab looking at it." For once in a 
way, the practical and the poetic mind ran in the same grooves and 
took the same point of view. 

25 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

" ' He fought, 
For truth and wisdom, foremost of the brave ; 
Him glory's idle glances dazzled not; 
'Twas his ambition, generous and great, 
A life to life's gi-eat end to consecrate.'" 

" Stranger," said the Yankee, " truer words were never 
spoken ; there is dry rot in all the main timbers of the 
Old World, and none of you will do any good till you 
are docked, refitted, and annexed to the New. You 
must log that song you sang : there ain't many British- 
ers that will say as much of the man that wliipped them ; 
so just set those lines down in the log, or it won't go 
for nothing." ^ 

To return to the subject from which I have so exu- 
berantly digressed: the students of St. Andrews were 
put to no expense for bathing, though they and all their 
relations seem to have needed it, for we learn that after 
the battle of Culloden, when the Duke of Cumberland 
was urged to march on into Scotland and " scour the 
country," his gruff reply was, "Better scour the na- 
tives." At that time Pears' Soap and Liberty had not 
begun to enlighten the world, the Highlanders were 
"haK-naked banditti," and no Scot took a bath, prop- 
erly speaking, but the eccentric Lord Monboddo, and 
he only tt toutes reserves. He was wont to walk to 
and fro for a limited season like Cincinnatus with his 
plough, " nudus plenusque pulveris etiamnum ore " (like 
his lordship's own works), — in other words, "naked 
and covered with dust even to his mouth." 2 This 

f 

1 Trelawney's Kecords of Shelley, Byron, and the Author, p. 86. 

2 This was " the kindred sympathy of dust for dust." Lord Mon- 
boddo was the author of various learned works of the Dryasdust type, 
so dusty, so musty, and so rusty that their very titles have long since 
become the stuff that nightmares are made of. His air-bath was 
probably a reminiscence of an early stage of that evolution in which 
he was a "survigrous" believer, when his ancestors had nothing on 

26 



THE FRANKLIN SOAP 

grande exposition^ by a sort of compromise with pro- 
priety, he called an air-bath. This liabit of his was 
soon approved by the economical Franklin, in spite of 
the fact that soap and water are so closely connected, — 
almost as much so as the Siamese Twins, in fact, — and 
that his father was a soap-maker, and that he himself 
had sold the article at a good profit for years. He 
had soap on his brain to the last ; and shortly before 
his death, when on the verge of a soapless world, 
he wrote two letters to Mrs. Mecom about keeping up 
the reputation of the family symphony, and about the 
wisdom of instructing her gi-andson in the art of mak- 
ing it, that it might be transmitted untarnished to a 
grateful posterity with " not a stripe erased or polluted, 
nor a single star obscured." On his part it was simply 
a case of ancestral devotion. Soap was epidemic in his 
family, and he died in the belief that the recipe was as 
immortal as the Iliad, that "children's children yet 
unborn should teach it to their heirs," and that it 
should glow forever in the Pilgrim firmament, with 
bright though homely radiance, in the same trinity 
with the " Bay Psalm Book " and New England rum. 
Happily the future was hidden from his eyes, and he 
failed to foresee the advent of an age to which the 
Franklin combination was to be as unknown, even to 
the "Gospel of Soap," as the music of the spheres; 
when gigantic saponaceous trusts were to be formed, 
representing millions, wherein the soap of Franklin was 
not even mentioned, and his very name was utterly 
ignored -, when alien mixtures were totally to supplant 
the original composition, under the fostering enterprise 

their persons but the tails with which his scientific enterprise pro- 
vided them, and when they roamed tlie forests of Borneo or Botany 
Bay, garbed merely in "the prcsartorial simplicity of Adam," and 
guiltless even of "breeks," or any other troublesome disguises 

27 



HISTORIC sidp:-lights 

of men who became the intimate friends and patrons 
of first-class prime donne, tenore robusti, mastere of 
genre, and other artists of exceptional note ; of repub- 
lican presidents, of cotton kings, of kerosene queens, 
and other " liighest prominents " whose overflowing 
pockets enabled them vividly to realize the close com- 
munion between Anglo-Saxon enterprise and the divinity 
of cleanliness. 

Alas for the Franklin Soap! Alas for Franklin's 
hope ! Ay de mi ! That has forever disappeared, but 
the great spirit of New England still keeps its ground, 
while the " Bay Psalm Book " continues to pay a most 
ample tribute to the enterprise and forethought of 
those who thus sang the Lord's song in a strange land, 
and originated an investment that has proved in a way 
far more profitable even than its spiritual rival. A 
few verses may not come amiss for our learning. 

PSALME 10. 

9 Downe doth he crowtch, & to the dust 
humbly he bowes with-all : 
that so a multitude of poore 

in his strong pawes may fall, 
lo He saith in heart, God hath forgot: 
he hides his face away, 
so that he will not see this thing 
unto eternall aye. 

37. A PsALME OF David. 

35 The wicked men I have behold 

in mighty pow'r to bee; 

also himselfe spreading abroad 

like to a green-bay-tree. 

36 Nevertheless he past away, 

and loe, then was not hee, 
moreover I did seek for him, 
but found hee could not bee. 
28 



HYMNS OF LOFTY CHEER 

PsALME 64. To the chief musician, a psahne of David. 

3 Who have their tongue now shari^eued 

like as it were a sword ; 
and bend their bowes to shoot their shafts 
ev'n a most bitter word : 

4 That they in secrecie may shoot 

the perfect man to hitt, 
suddenly doe they shoot at hira, 
& never feare a whitt." 

PsALME 123. A song of degrees. 

O Lord be mercifuU to us, 

mercifull to uss bee : 
Because that filled with contempt 

exceedingly are wee. 
With scorne of those that be at ease, 

our soul's filled very much : 
Also of those that great ones are, 

ev'n with contempt of such. 

Such were the "hymns of lofty cheer" with which, 
according to Mrs. Hemans, " the sounding aisles of the 
dim woods rang." Such were the melodious strains 
with which the Pilgrim Fathers were wont to dulcify 
their worship and frighten the aborigines on the Lord's 
Day. No wonder "the rocking pines of the forest 
roared at these anthems of the free." When the world 
is eager to pay twelve hundred dollare a volume for 
such poetry as that,^ it is quite plain that, in the long 
run, psalms, though of indifferent quality, pay better 

1 At the sale of the library of Mr. George Brinley, of New York, 
in March, 1878, a perfect copy of the "Bay Psalra Book" was 
bought by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for $1200. This had formerly 
been in the possession of Mr. Edward A. Crowninshield, of Boston, 
Mass., a collector of rare taste and learning, after whose death it 
passed into the hands of Mr. Henry Stevens, the well-known biblio- 
grapher. This whole matter forms the substance of chapter vii. of 
Mr. Stevens's piquant and edifying " P^ecollections of Mr. James 
Lenox." 

29 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

than rum, even than the time-honored effusion of New 
England. From Avhat has been said we may infer, 
firstly, that neither David nor the Tilgrims lived in 
vain, and, secondly, that the latter builded even better 
than their Concord descendants, "the embattled farm- 
ers," for the ancestral and nasal makers of the " Psalm 
Book " made even a louder report than " the shot heard 
round the world." 

The prominent part taken by the Apostle Eliot in 
the " Bay Psalm Book " must have been a valuable aid 
towards enabling him to achieve the translation of the 
Bible for the Indians. It is easy to recognize his hand 
in each of these chefs cCceuvre} and one can readily see 
how the same pen that wrote, for example, 

" For of his heart's desire 
The wicked boasts, and covetous 
Blesseth, stirring God's ire " (Psalm x. 3), 

" for the use, edification and comfort of the saints in 
New England," could soon soar to the same verse in the 
Indian tongue, wliich is as follows from the very last 
edition : — 

" Ne boutche matcheron muikoau tohanahtag wuttah 
neueh : kah wunnanumaniahchewontomwon utliyeus 
Jehovah ohguaceumonche." 

Every discriminating and unbiassed mind must admit 
this. After all, the difference between these two unique 
and indigenous abnormities is one of degree rather than 

1 Quaritch has now on hand a copy of " Eliot's Indian Bible," 
for which lie asks £450. It is dedicated by " The Commissioners 
of the United Colonies in New England " to "The High and Mighty 
Prince Charles the Second, Defender of tlie Faith," etc., etc. It 
purports to liave been printed at " Nuppoquohwussuaeneumun," 
wliicli is curtly and irreverently styled " Cambridge " by this degener- 
ate generation. It is pleasant to recognize tlie fact that our domestic 
Scripture still has a financial pull and holds its own even with the 
"Bay Psalm Book." 

30 



THE BACTRIAN CAMEL 

of quality, like that between the gorilla and the missing 
link. "Sound them. They do become the mouth as 
well." And if one attempts to " conjure with 'em," 
one will " start a spirit " as soon as the other. Of 
coui'se there are certain discrepancies, and one cannot 
help reflecting how much wiser and more considerate 
it would have been if the saintly Eliot had decided to 
meet his converts half-way and by teaching them to 
read the " Bay Psalm Book " had killed two birds with 
one stone, as it were, for there must have been quantities 
of that, work which they would have recognized at a 
glance, and thus have all the more easily become "par- 
takers of the inheritance of the saints in light," like the 
Colossians and the Pilgrim Fathers. In addition to this 
there would have been a great saving of expense, since 
words as long and as monotonous as the Erie canal 
would have been avoided, and a whole chapter could 
have been read at once without stopping for refresh- 
ments or resorting to the dentist, to say nothing of the 
cruelty of making the Indians " eat their own words." 
However, we should reflect that in those old Bunyan 
days the way to Heaven was thought to lead through 
the Slough of Despond, where the Pilgrim sank in the 
mire " tlirough the burden that was on his back ; " and 
to the Puritan mind two burdens would naturally seem 
to promise a richer inheritance than one, for every saint 
that " endured to the end." It is the Bactrian camel, 
the one with two humps, for whom there is no " last 
straw," and who lives and thrives on privations and 
obstacles that would reduce a mere dromedary to dishev- 
elled shreds and patches.^ 

^ As the camel has long been killed off in this country, to judge 
from the results of Professor Marsh's discoveries in the far West, and 
as many of my readers have never even seen the animal or heard 
him warble, and so must be unfamiliar with his chaste, expressive 

til 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

As for New England rum, though I cannot speak 
from experience, I have learned from the best authority 
that it is still true to the purity of its origin, and is 
translated from the best material, and that it is the 
safest medium now known for any one who seeks to 
see double. When it first saw the light in the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, it evidently "made a good 
lancUng," like the Pilgrims and John Brown. Doubts 
less, far away on the verge of the horizon, its first 
patrons detected the rising of that self-amplification 
peculiar to their Boston descendants, who were finally 
to glow like those double stars which revolve perpetu- 
ally round each other, 

" Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine." 

" Thus you see of how much more use a superiority 
of knowledge is frequently capable of making indi- 
viduals," to quote the sentiment of the good and wise 
Mr. Barlow. 

" Dies erit praegelida, 
Sinistra quum Bostonia." 

features, his lambent smile, and his graceful figure, I venture to 
fortify my imagery by an extract from a well-known authority on 
natural history: — 

'"The camel,' answered Mr. Barlow, 'is chiefly found in those 
burning climates which you have heard described. His height is 
very great, rising to fourteen or fifteen feet, reckoning to the top of 
his head: his legs are long and slender, his body not large, and his 
neck of an amazing length. This animal is found in no part of the 
world that we are acquainted with, wild or free; but the whole race 
is enslaved by man and brought up to drudgery from the first 
moment of their existence.' 

"Here the interest and concern which had been long visible in 
Tommy's face could no longer be repressed, and tears began to 
trickle down his face." — Sandford and Merlon. 

32 



BOSTON AND EXPANSION 

Franklin^ kept up his patronage of aerated nudity in 
London, though one would imagine that his air-bath 

1 " Clad only in his own complete perfection," like Eve and the 
pair of undressed kids on the richly embroidered facade of the 
Public Library of his native city, who symbolize the progress of his 
birthplace since the days of his own boyhood and show that they 
have merely followed his lead, and have begun where he left off. 
As the far-glancing, wide-ranging, philosophic Emerson no well said, 
" Boston still commands attention as the town which was appointed 
in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of North America," 
and the twins, thus taking so conspicuous and perpetual an air-bath, 
seem to be making the most of the city motto and saying, " What the 
Lord did for our fathers, he is now doing for us." Like Franklin, 
we are "renude day by day." 

This is an age of expansion, and the " Veritas " of Harvard has 
gradually blossomed into the " nuda Veritas " of Boston. Crossing 
the Charles, like Washington crossing the Delaware, has broadened 
the area of freedom. "Sicut patribus, sit Deus nobis." With His 
aid our Pilgrim fathers Philippined the Pequots, the Narragansetts, 
and "the praying Indians" as well, even those that had mastered 
the "Bay Psalm Book." We have gone steadily on from that day 
to this, and it is our duty eventually to carry out their heaven-sent 
mission and Philippine the whole world. We shall certainly do it. 
If other races and peoples fail to appreciate our efforts and sacrifices 
in their behalf, so much the worse for them. They must take the 
consequences. Truth lies at the bottom of a well, and the sooner the 
Filipinos get there, the better for themselves and for mankind. 
Let us hope and pray that the two bloodthirsty tyrants, Aguinaldo, 
King of the Filipinos, and Philip, King of the Wampanoags, may 
go down to posterity together in the same sarcophagus, and that 
soon. Our soldiers are fighting in a righteous cause, if ever there 
was one. 

" Tlie Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet, 
And again in his borders see Israel set," 

in spite of all the mutinous, traitorous, unpatriotic, and sentimental 
shriekers. 

" The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; let him 
not leave us, nor forsake us," 1 Kings viii. 57, a well-chosen motto, 
for which Solomon ought to receive the freedom of the city at 
least. 

As the patriotic and far-sighted Adams wrote in 1765, " I always 
consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, 
as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the 
3 33 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

must quickly have degenerated into a soot-bath, in the 
ding-y, coal-laden, mephitic atmosphere of that city, the 
exhalations of Avhich obstruct the lungs, clog the pores, 
and blacken the shirt-bosoms, — or "shirt-fronts," as the 
euphuistic Britons call them.^ 

In a letter to Mr. Dubourg, dated " London, 28 July, 
1768," Franklin says, "You know the cold bath had 
long been in vogue here as a tonic ; but the shock of 
the cold water has always appeared to me, generally 
speaking, as too violent, and I have found it much more 
agreeable to my constitution to bathe in another ele- 
ment. I mean cold air. With this view I rise almost 
every morning and" — but a regard for decency con- 
strains me to di-aw a decorous veil over the fantastic 
antics of a cranky philosopher w jouris naturalibus?' 

To follow the example of these two models came 
very easy to the students of St. Andrews, who generally 

illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish 
part of mankind all over the earth.'''' 

These lines were written as a part of Adams' " Dissertation on the 
Canon and Feudal Law," but, as his grandson, Charles Francis 
Adams, says in the edition of his works, were " perhaps omitted, from 
an impression that they might be thought to savor, not merely of 
enthusiasm, but of extravagance." 

Charles Francis Adams in 1850 comments on them thus, " Who 
now would deny that this magnificent anticipation has already been 
to a great extent realized? Who does not see that the accomplish- 
ment of this great object is already placed beyond all possibility of 
failure ? " 

Oh for an hour of Adams now ! Mais ya ira. 

1 Franklin writes to his Avife, Feb. 19, 1758: "The whole town is 
one great smoky house and every street a chimney; the air full 
of floating sea-coal soot, and you never get a sweet breath of what is 
pure without riding for it some miles into the country." 

2 What a contrast was the bath of George the Third to this 
republican Cincinnatus-Franklin simplicity! Miss Burney writes 
from Weymouth in 1789, " The King bathes, and with great success: 
a machine follows the royal one into the sea, filled with fiddlers, who 
play ' God save the King ' as his Majesty takes his plunge." 

34 



AIR AND WATER IN SCOTLAND 

went about in a semi-nude state, with trousers,^ like 
" oppositions of science falsely so called," seriously cur- 
tailed at either end, and so termed by courtesy in the 
same way that Dr. Johnson denominated his exiguous 
" schule " an academy. As they were only half clothed, 
they naturally got their air-baths at half-price, and when 
the function was over, they could keep the air that was 
left for the next one. This use of the atmosphere did 
not come from the scarcity of water in Scotland, whose 
climate consists of rain with showers between, and whose 
kind was so poor that the people could not even raise 
an umbrella, but, chemically, water is a metal holding 
in solution gold, microbes, and other richness not to be 
lightly squandered by a truly saving people, and no 
conscientious Scot would have consented for a moment 
to waste it on his thrifty person, even though seeming 
thereby to riot in temporary opulence, when he could, 
without the least risk, get an ample supply of air, 
which was mostly gas lying about loose in ample 
quantities, having been carefully impoverished and 
sterilized by sympathetic nature for the use of the 
aborigines, and was moreover the cheapest thing going 
as it was to be had merely for the taking. 

This windy sympathy will easily account for the 
choice by the Scotch of their national instrument of 
music, the bagpipe, which, with no capital but wind, 
will grind out more barbaric dissonance to the cubic 
acre, and at less expense, than any other machine yet 
invented since the days of Jubal. A fantasia by a fog- 
horn and two tin pans would be a midsummer night's 

J *' Boswcll, "We supped that evening at his house. I showed him 
some lines I had made upon a pair of breeches. 

" Johnson. Sir, the lines are good, but where could you find such 
a subject in your country? 

^'■Boswcll. Therefore it is a proof of invention, which is a charac- 
teristic of poetry." 

35 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

dream in comparison. It well illustrates the truth of 
Congreve's well-known couplet: — 

" Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, 
To soften rocks, or rend a knotted oak." 

Its effect on the Scotch has most naturally always been 
very great, and no wonder that the attempt to extort 
Luther's Psalm from the bagpipe has ever excited them 
to a wild frenzy of enthusiasm; and even drawn tears 
from other auditors, as they assisted at the performance 
of this air " in the Ercles' vein ; a part to tear a cat in 
and make all split." 

If " God rights those who keep silence," what is to 
be the ultimate fate of those who play on the bagpipe ? 

" Scotus est, piper in naso." This venerable proverb, 
" the heir of all the ages," which had a wide European 
range in its day, and is quoted b}' Scott in "Rob Roy," 
suggests both the antiquity of the bagpipe and the 
nasal clangor that it was always wont to manufacture, 
— a wind-bag with an ^olian attachment ah imo pectore^ 
world without end. 

The bagpipe is mentioned in Daniel, as Jonah i^ 
cited in the whale, though Jonah was really an inter- 
polation. It there figures as one of the implements of 
music in the crazy orchestra of Nebuchadnezzar, where 
it is facetiously termed a " dulcimer," probably on the 
"lucus a non lucendo" principle, because there is noth- 
ing dulcet about it. In later days, sad to say, it has 
been chiefly used by the German critics as a convincing 
historic and philological proof that Daniel never existed 
at all, or at least was changed at birth, and thus was 
really some one else, who took his name and so became 
the progenitor of the wildest exegetical anarchy that 
ever was known since the famous disputation of INIichael 
the archangel and Satan about the body of Moses. 

36 



DANIEL AND SIR ISAAC NEWTON 

This includes the thousand pages of elaborate and ex- 
haustive confusion on the subject by Father Pusey, the 
Romano-Anglican, whom no amount of misinformation 
and misapplied conjecture could ever bring to a head. 
On the whole it would seem to have been better for 
Daniel if he had never been born again, or even once. 
This ought really to impel the Scotch to look askance 
at the bagpipe and to cling the closer to Saint Andrew, 
who has never been exposed by the critics. As holy 
George Herbert wrote, " Bibles laid open ; millions of 
surprises." If he had lived in our day, he never could 
have told " where he was at." 

An ingenious and earnest effort has been made by 
various critics (not the least of whom was Sir Isaac 
Newton, who, so far as the Old Testament was con- 
cerned, had all the elements of a comet in his intellect- 
ual make-up ^) to elucidate the intricacies of Daniel by 
the aid of the Apocalypse, the result being that the 
prophet seems to haA-e come entirely apart and resembles 
a skeleton shaken up in a bag with not one bone more 
closely related to another than General Shafter to Napo- 
leon. It was thus that in old times the Boston doctors 
used to try to elucidate epileptic fits from the system by 

1 So long as the illustrious Newton confined himself to the laws 
that regulate the government of the universe, he was in his element, 
like the sea-serpent in the Atlantic. Nothing could exceed the easy 
and natural grace with which he disported himself among his tran- 
scendental curves, his hydrostatics, dynamics, and trajectories, his 
parabolas and hypercycloids, but he really did not comprehend his 
own limitations. It has been well said that when a great man has 
a dark spot, it is terribly dark; and anything darker than Newton's 
explanation of the "ram with two horns that pushed westward and 
northward and southward," and " the goat that had a notable horn 
between his eyes," and " the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, that 
had ten horns," and, in short, of Daniel's whole cornucopia, it would 
be hard to discover, unless it were his diagnosis of the four beasts 
in the Revelation of St. John that were "full of eyes before and 
behind." 

87 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

a prescription of cantharides, ipecacuanha, glauber salts, 
and nux vomica, taken as hot as the patient could bear, 
like odium theologiai7n, though we must admit that 
they often failed to discover what was really the matter 
with the subject till post mortem had set in. And so 
it seems to have fared with Daniel, and the immortality 
which was supposed to have come to him because he 
preferred the roar of the lions to the uproar of the bag- 
pipe. With all his limitations, the prophet evidently 
had a musical ear. 

The only case of the unstinted use of water by the 
Scotch in the eighteenth century, except to help them to 
leave their country and cross the ocean, was in the dilution 
of their claret, of which, as it was very cheap, the upper 
and middle classes drank a great deal. In this matter 
they often revealed a marvellous liberality and a lavish 
self-denial, which they were perfectly willing to share, 
even with their guests, by whom it was not always 
appreciated, though it was offered with genuine eimncke- 
ment de coeur. Dr. Johnson had occasion to experience 
this on his famous journey to Scotland with his ap- 
pendix, Boswell ; and when the latter urgently insisted 
in defence of his countrymen that they did get dead 
drunk on the wine thus expanded, in spite of the doc- 
tor's assertion to the contrary, the latter shrewdly re- 
plied, on the crede cxi^erto principle, "No, sir, there 
were people who died of dropsies, which they contracted 
in trying to get drunk." 

In their bitter fight against the introduction of an in- 
sidious and demoralizing civilization, the Scotch waged 
a pertinacious conflict against tea, as ruinous to the 
health, heretical, and full of pagan depravity. Dr. 
Cunningham, in his " Church History of Scotland," gives 
an interesting account of the general uprising against 
it, " as sure to enervate the human constitution and ruin 

88 



SYMPATHETIC THRIFT 

the state. Resolutions against its use were entered into 
by many counties and towns. Total abstinence societies 
were formed. A body of farniei-s declared it a con- 
sumptive luxury, but only for those who could afford to 
be weak, indolent, and useless. Even President Forbes, 
one of the most enlightened and patriotic men of his 
time, attributes almost all the misfortunes of the day to 
the *villanous practice,' and mourns over the degen- 
eracy of a people who could give up their wholesome 
beer for such a vile drug." 

From one point of view Franklin must have been 
pleased and interested by an honor that came forth 
from such conditions as those which prevailed at St. 
Andrews. That display of grinding poverty and hard 
experience would naturally have been rather a com- 
mendation in his eyes, since it undoubtedly served to 
remind him of his own contracted and indigent youth, 
when he "used often to dine or sup on a biscuit or a 
slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the 
pastry-cook's," washed down with a glass of water. The 
frugal habits and enforced parsimony of the students 
would excite a lively sympathy in his breast, and the 
author of "'Tis a well-spent penny that saves a groat," 
would feel a responsive thrill at their incessant repeti- 
tion of "A bawbee saved is a bawbee got," and their 
necessary and instinctive application of it on all occa- 
sions. ^ The very name of the institution was sugges- 
tive of a thrifty air and origin, since it came from the 
apostle who was the first to detect the lad that had the 
" five barley loaves and tvf o small fishes," — a miracle, 
by the waj-, that must have been peculiarly to the taste 
of the canny Scotch, because it covers more ground than 

1 " Virtus (properly manliness, the chief duty of man) meant in 
old Rome power of fighting ; means, in modern Rome, connoisseur ship ; 
in Scotland, thrifty — Caijlyle, Review of Diderot. 

39 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

any i^ther, and they got more for their money, since it is 
the only one which the four Evangelists all mention, 
and as to the essential details of which they all agree. ^ 
Surely no " title to mansions in the skies " could be 
clearer than this, or pan out better. It is as ubiquitous ^ 
as the Scotch themselves ; and no better choice of a 
saint, either as the guardian genius of Scotland, or as 
the patron of its oldest and poorest university, could 
have been made than Saint Andrew, for wherever a loaf 
or a fish was to be found, there would likewise be found 
plenty of Scotchmen not only ready to eat and be filled, 
— at least for the moment, — but with baskets to "gather 
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." It 
was ever thus, and the true Scot cares not who throws 
the bomb, if he only gets the scoop. He keeps the 
faith and everything else he can contrive to lay his 

1 "The Scotch keep no holidays, nor acknowledge any patron 
saint but Saint Andrew, who, they say, got that honor by presenting 
Christ with an oaten cake after his forty days' fast." — Wilkes in 
the North Briton, Aug. 28, 1703. 

This is merely the malicious invention of "James Hov/ell, Gent.," 
who in 1649 published "A Perfect Description of the People and 
Country of Scotland," — a work professedly written to abuse a poor 
and honest nation who were doing their best to get on in the world 
by economy and self-denial. 

2 Old English proverb, "Scotchmen, rats, and red herrings travel 
all the world over." 

A hon-mot of Lord Monk, the former Governor-General of Canada, 
Avas this: " The Englishman is never happy unless he is miserable; 
the Irishman is never at peace unless he is fighting; the Scotchman 
is never at home unless he is abroad." This is the natural issue of 
what in old times they used to style the " praefervidum ingenium 
Scotorum," a quality which as yet shows few signs of dying out. 
The Scot still burns to go somewhere and do something. He is 
not one to stay in his den and suck his own paws or anybody else's. 
When he sees anything of value in the hands of another, his first 
instinct, like that of Hotspur, is to say to himself, — 

"I am on fire 
To hear tliis rich reprisal is so nigh, 
And yet not mine." 
40 



FLIGHT OF THE DOMESTIC SAINTS 

hands on, and, " like seasoned timber, never gives." 
M. de Circourt was wont to sa}-, " If it had pleased the 
Almighty to create not two, but twenty, millions of 
Scotchmen, they would have conquered the world, and 
uncommonly hardly they 'd have used it, too." 

This national characteristic has continued to hold its 
own even to the present day ; and it is quite natural that 
over a hundred savings-banks, to say nothing of many 
other moneyed institutions, in Scotland are dedicated 
to Saint Andrew, — a suggestive and stimulating title 
which clearly reveals the popular connection between 
thrift and relisfion. 

The entlironement of Saint Andrew was a veritable 
coup d'cglise and the source of "a rich amendment of 
life " to all the votaries of tlie Church in Scotland. 

As soon as the new saint appeared above the horizon, 
his superior claims to the patronage of that countiy were 
instantly recognized, and Saint Columba, Saint Kenti- 
gern. Saint Ninian, and all the rest of the aborigiiial 
pretenders fled amain and vanished like spirits at cock- 
crow. Their flimsy claims were seen to have been based 
on pure assumption, and they became forthwith as dead 
as Saint Mortuus Natus, of blessed memory. In fact, 
tliey would never have been heard of again, had it not 
been for the efforts of the Scottish Antiquarian Society 
to galvanize them into a momentary and fictitious life. 
In the records of this body they can still be dimly 
materialized by the eye of faith, like ghosts scuffling in 
a fog, or shirts that have been translated from the wash- 
tub and hung out for transient and suggestive infla- 
tion by the passing breeze, — a row of Spiritualists on 
their last legs and spasmodically yearning to be born 
again. 

As might perhaps have been expected, Voltaire, 
though fully appreciating the prehensile tenacity of the 

41 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Scotch temperament,^ betrayed a woful lack of rever- 
ence for the miracle wrought for their benefit. This 
appears from the following /cm d' artifice in his "Sotti- 
sier," which proves conclusively that its author was 
not made for a bishop and could never have hoped to 
officiate in one of the Scotch churches. 

" ' Messieui's,' said the assistant, ' le cur<^ will preach 
on Sunday concerning the miracle by which five people 
ate and were filled with three thousand loaves and five 
thousand small fishes.' At this announcement all the 
congregation burst into laughter. ' Petit malheureux,' 
cried the cur^, ' c'est tout le contraire. Go back and tell 
them that it was three thousand people that were fed 
with five loaves and three fishes.' ' Ah ! jMonsieur, if I 
told them that, they would laugh a great deal more.'"^ 

There is one thing to be said in favor of the Scotch, 
they generally profess high ideals, though they are not 
always so very squeamish as to the means by which they 
contrive to bring them to perfection. They have now 
got to styling themselves " the Yankees of Europe," in 
order to insure them a welcome wherever they go, 
though that would not necessarily follow. As Sir 
Thomas Browne says in his description of the phcenix, 
"There may be probably a mistake in the compute." 

1 Voltaire, in his "Sic'cle de Louis XV.," says of the Scotch that 
in 1745 " ils e'taient toujours prets a se precipiter dans les entreprises 
qui les flattaient de I'espe'rance de quelque hutin " (They were 
always eager to rush into enterprises that flattered them with the 
hope of plunder). 

- Thus wrote the wicked Voltaire, whose "sting and stench" the 
broadly philanthropic Euskin likens to "a comet wagging its tail of 
phosphorescent nothing across the steadfast stars." This may be 
true from the writer's point of view, but more magnanimity and 
toleration for the weaknesses of a fellow-author might well have been 
expected from one of such force and eloquence, — one who could 
describe a heap of gravel with such winged words as to draw tears 
even from such a virago, such a pietm dura, as Mrs. Fanny Kemble 
Butler. 

42 



SANDY'S AMBITION 

The Scotch have ever been more or less jealous of Ply- 
mouth Rock and are perpetually striving to put their 
own Bass Rock on top of it, though they will never suc- 
ceed for various reasons, to say nothing of the fact that 
Bass is not half so great a name in this country as in 
Great Britain. Of course, " Parting " (from their own 
country) " is such sweet sorrow " that they can never get 
enough of it, but it is useless for them to attempt to 
bring any of their own rocks with them. We have 
quite enough of them in New England already. If the 
Scotch don't take kindly to the corner-stone of the 
United States, they had better stay at home with their 
own rock and " exploiter le cadavre." The martj^rs of 
Bass Rock, moreover, would be completely thrown away 
in New England. They would be an embarras de ri- 
chesses, — a superfluous addition to our already overflow- 
ing repertoire^ what with the martyrs now in process of 
manufacture all over the land, and those of the past, in- 
cluding the Baptists, the Quakers, the witches, the 
wizards, and other seeds of liberty that have so amply 
marked our advance towards freedom of thought, word, 
and deed. No, thank you, we will not, for the present 
at least, try to add the Covenanters to our " Acta Sancto- 
rum." We will see them later. Such allegiance as we 
owe them is merely collateral, as it were, and a toutes 
reserves. 

From a reminiscence of the Right Honorable Sir 
iVIountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (where will you 
find a greater name than that ? ) it seems clear that the 
Scotch yet retain that tenacious sense of the covenanted 
mercies of the Bible and that stern and uncompromising 
devotion thereto which have descended to them from the 
seventeenth century. As late as 1840, when Sir John 
Bowring was canvassing the electors at Kircaldy, one 
of them said to him, "We will have a religious man 

43 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

to represent us, if we have to go to hell to find liim ; " 
and another added, "If you don't believe in the Trinity 
and wish us to vote for you, we must have ten shillings 
a head instead of five " ^ (" Notes from a Diary," 1879.) 
I have also taken the liberty of abstracting two other 
anecdotes from this most amusing and instructive 
thesaurus. 

These stories are confirmed by Sir John himself in 
his own account of his "Election Experiences." He 
says of these devotees of Saint Andrew, " They fancied, 
no doubt, that they ran some additional risk to their 
souls' salvation and were therefore entitled to get some 
premium for the perils they incurred." He also says, 
" I have seen myself placarded in Scotland as an 
atheist, an unbeliever, an unfaithful husband, and a 
disreputable head of a family." Pretty well for him 
who had already written " Watchman ! tell us of the 
night," and " In the Cross of Christ I glory." How- 
ever, he had also written, — 

" The age for damning, dogmatizing creeds, 

Thanks to the power of Truth, has passed avray, 
For man hath nobler thoughts and higher needs, 
And more exalted purposes to-day." 

Perhaps these lines were too much for the zealous voters 
of Kircaldy. At any rate, he lost his election, though 

1 The Scotch still stand fast by their ancient landmarks. As 
Scotia says to her mother in Mrs. Barr's admirable novel, " A Sister 
to Esau," "I think we do Gallio great injustice. He was really 
nothing worse than a good magistrate who refused to take part in a 
theological fight." This is the whole thing in a nut-shell. 

Gallio, as all my readers may perhaps not be aware, was the Eoman 
"deputy of Achaia," who sat on the judgment seat, while the Jews 
beat Sosthenes, " the chief ruler of the synagogue," and calmly 
dominated the situation, without taking part with either side. " And 
Gallio cared for none of these things." If, however, he could have 
foreseen the persistent and overwhelming abuse he was eventually 
to receive for centuries, both in Scotland and in New England, simply 
for doing nothing, his conduct would doubtless have been different. 

44 



VICTORIA IN SCOTLAND 

he did profess to be "a religious man" and did "believe 
in the Trinity." 

Though even now many of the Scotch cannot, or do 
not care to, distinguish the difference between Queen 
Victoria and the Duke of Argyle, her Majesty, with her 
usual tact and good judgment, moves serenely on, like 
the moon, and does her best to conciliate her northern 
annex. The result is a display of loyal respect and 
esteem on their part, Presbyterian sermons by the 
acre, when she is at Balmoral and attends Crathie 
ChurchT and unlimited prayers in her behalf from the 
Scotch ministers, like the following, which was sub- 
mitted to her Majesty on approval, and j)resumably, for 
the edification of the Scotch Deity also, at Crathie 
Church some years ago: "Grant that as she grows 
to be an old woman, she may be made a new man, and 
that in all righteous causes she may go forth before her 
people, like a he-goat on the mountains." 

Placed in the midst of these and other conditions 
quite as sympathetic, it is no wonder that Poor Richard 
found himself very much at home in Scotland in the 
summer and autumn of 1759, and that in his letter to 
Lord Kames, dated Jan. 3, 1760, he termed his stay there 
"six weeks of the densest happiness," and expressed a 
wish to pass the rest of his days in a retreat so blissful. 
This was his only visit to Scotland ; and though the 
greater part of his time was allotted to Edinburgh, he and 
his son managed to make a short stay at St. Andrews 
and another at Glasgow. He has left but an incidental 
reference to the former and none at all to the latter. 

The suggestion of a visit to Glasgow is based solely 
on a letter from Adam Smith to William Strahan, 
which was written from Glasgow, April 4, 1760. It is 
printed in the "Life of Adam Smith," by John Rae, 
published in 1895, p. 150 : — 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

"Remember me to the Franklins. I hope I shall 
have the grace to write to the youngest by next post 
to thank him, in the name both of the College and of 
myself, for his very agreeable present." 

As neither the Library nor the Records of the College 
show any vestige of a donation from William Franklin, 
the nature of his " present " can only be left to 
conjecture. 

To the letter in question, Mr. Rae adds these com- 
ments in support of the claim that Franklin and his son 
were at Glasgow. 

" The Franklins mentioned in this letter are Benjamin 
Franklin and his son, who had spent six weeks in Scotland 
in the spring ^ of the previous year — ' six weeks/ wrote 
Franklin, ' of the densest happiness I have met with in any 
part of my life.' We know from Dr. Carlyle ^ that during 
this visit Franklin met Smith one evening at supper at Rob- 
ertson's in Edinburgh, but it seems from this letter highly 
probable that he had gone through to Glasgow and possibly 
stayed with Smith at the college. Why otherwise should 
the younger, or, as Smith says, the youngest, Franklin have 
thought of making a presentation to Glasgow College, or 
Smith of thanking him, not merely in the name of the 
college, but in his own ? " 

This argument must strike every one as conclusive. 

Naturally this general beatitude was largely increased 
by the intellectual atmosphere of the Scottish Athens, — 
all the more seductive to a mind rendered flexible by 

^ "The spring" should be "the summer and autumn." The 
spring of 1750 Franklin spent in London. 

2 " In the middle of September this year (1759) we supped one night 
in Edinburgh with the celebrated Dr. Franklin at Dr. Eobertson's 
house. Dr. Franklin had his son with him; and besides Wright and 
me there were David Hume, Dr. Cullen, Adam Smith, and two or 
three more." — Autobiography of Rev. Alex. Carlyle, Minister of 
Invemesk, 1860. 

46 



THE EDINBURGH AURORA 

constant comparison and ready observation, — by the 
brightness of those northern lights, Hume,^ Robertson, 
Adam Smith, and otliers, that were then shining in the 
zenith. As Sainte-Beuve well remarlcs, " We can well 
underetand Franklin's liking for the lettered society of 
Edinburgh. He was endowed with a philosoi^hy at 
once penetrating and circumspect, subtle and practical, 
w4th patient and elevated observation ; as author of 
moral essays and also as experimenter and natural 
pliilosopher ; as so lucid and natural an expositor of 
his own methods and results, it seems that Scotland was 
truly his intellectual country." 

There were other strong bonds of attraction between 
Franklin and liis free-thinking and learned friends in 
Scotland, — " friends whose conversation has been so 
agreeable and so improving to me," as he writes to 
Hume in 1752. In support of this remark I am tempted 
to quote a short passage from " The Future Civil Policy 
of America " by Professor Draper : — 

"But of all meteorological phenomena undoubtedly the 
most surprising are the displays of atmospheric electricity. 
What can be more beautiful than the fantastic, the ever 
changing movements of the Aurora ? What more impos- 
ing than the flash of lightning ? Not without reason have 
men in all ages looked upon the former as glimpses of the 
movements of angels and upon the latter as being the 
weapon of God. 

1 Hume was ever an especial friend of Franklin and of his cause, 
and the latter made him a most enjoyable visit in Scotland. He 
always maintained that it was impossible to conquer America. It is 
very odd that in all the numerous letters of Hume that are now pre- 
served, in print or in manuscript, except, of course, the two he wrote 
to Franklin and which have been often printed, the name of the 
latter does not once occur. There is a large collection of Hume's 
correspondence in the British Museum, which I have carefully 
examined. 

47 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

" Scientific discovery not only removed these prodigies 
from the domain of the sujjernatural, it has also made the 
agent concerned in their production available for the pur- 
poses of man. When Franklin, with a boy's kite, drew 
down the lightning from heaven, there was a great moral, 
as well as physical result. Human opinions were modified ; 
the power of man was increased." 

He who had done so much towards this mighty and 
glorious consummation, and had, as it were, inscribed 
his name in lettei'S of living light on the great dome of 
heaven, might well feel himself in broad and kindred 
sympathy with other minds of equal scope and aim 
with his own, which in other domains of intellectual 
research had made such steady progress towards magni- 
fying and strengthening the contracted ideas of their age, 
and, like that fair handmaid of God, Saint Cecilia, had 

" Enlarged the former narrow bounds 
And added length to solemn sounds, 
With Nature's mother-wit and arts unknown before." 

To this " diapason closing full in man," Franklin was 
conscious of having contributed his own share, and with 
this sense of worthy endeavor and high attainment lie 
must have felt himself serenely at rest in the society of 
those who had mounted to the same heights as himself : 
with the teeming intellects of " those who know " and 
who in past ages have done so much to elevate our race 
and, like music, to arch over our trivial existence with 
another and a diviner life, — a life that has neither end 
nor limit. It is thus that the utterance of the truly 
great has ever typified the singing of the morning stai-s 
which glorified a new creation, and gave it fit connection 
with its divine origin, and thus have " those master souls 
to whom God has given power over others " ever re- 
vealed that potent influence, which, even though unsung, 

48 



FRANKLIN AND ADAM SMITH 

is a silent inspiration, like a swelling and lustrous tide, 
that fills the soul with light and ever broadening and 
expanding influence. 

The writings and the opinions of Hume and Adam 
Smith were of great interest and attraction to Franklin, 
and it was a matter of both pride and sympathetic devo- 
tion that at a later date he gave to the latter most valu- 
able aid in his great work. In his opinion they were, 
no less than himself, the pioneers of a new era and had 
already done as much in their way to enlighten with 
their brilliant thought-flashes the realm of chaos and 
old night as he had done by enticing from the skies the 
rays that illuminated the vault of darkness.^ 

1 It seems strange and, to tell the truth, ungracious in Adam 
Smith that he gives no credit in any of his works to Franklin for the 
help he received from him, though he finds much to say about soap 
and the taxes thereon, and about "the Economical Table of M. 
Quesnai," and the Post Office as a source of revenue, and the exports 
of pig-iron from America, and a hundred other subjects of colonial 
and domestic concern, as to which Franklin was an expert of pecu- 
liar worth. 

As to the value and amount of Franklin's contributions to Smith's 
" Wealth of Nations," see an account of his own statements to Logan 
in Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 533. 

In fact. Smith never even mentions the name of Franklin but 
once, and then only to contradict him. Eef erring to " the propaga- 
tion of sound by vibrations of the air " (in his " Essay on the Exter- 
nal Senses," p. 215), the author observes, "Dr. Franklin has made 
objections to this doctrine, but I think without success." 

Smith had but one of Franklin's works in his library, and that was 
" Experiments and Observations on Electricity," published in 1769. 



Part II 



Franklin's Diploma. — Electricity in Scotland. — Franklin at St. 
Andrews. — Gift to the University. — Experiments of Rev. Mr. 
Kinnersley and Franklin's Debt thereto. — Franklin's Degree in 
America. — Benjamin Mecom and his Magazine. — E Pluribus 
Unum. — Baskerville's Virgil. — Yale Degree. — Harvard Degree. 
— Mr. Sibley and J. U. D. — Canon Law. — Meaning of LL.D. 
at St. Andrews and at Cambridge. — At Oxford. — Dr. Johnson's 
Degree from Oxford. — Present Insignificance of all Degrees. — 
A Beatified Lawyer. 



I GIVE herewith a copy of the diploma by which the 
University of St. Andrews conferred its degree upon 
Franklin. This copy is now in the library of Yale 
University, and for the privilege of printing it I am in- 
debted to the peculiar courtesy of the President and of 
Mr. Franklin B. Dexter, the affable and accomplished 
Secretary and Librarian of the Corporation. It is in 
the handwriting of President Stiles, of Yale, a life-long 
friend of Franklin, who appears to have made it at 
Newport, July 11, 1763. The original can nowhere be 
found, nor is there even a copy thereof at St. Andrew, 
either among the various archives in the muniment room, 
or elsewhere. As the recipient was not obliged to come 
for it in person, as at Oxford, the diploma was probably 
sent by mail. 

60 



FRANKLIN'S DIPLOMA 

Copies of Papers taken by the Leave of Dr. 
Benjamin- Franklin of Philada in New Port, 
July 11, 1763. 

His Diploma froui the University of St. Andrews, the 
oldest Univcrsitij in Scotland. 

Nos Universitatis Sti. Andreae apud Scotos Rector, Pro- 
motor, Collegiorum Praefecti, Facultatis Artium Decanus, 
caeterique Professorum Ordinis, Lectoribus Salutem. 

Quandoquidem aequura et Ration! congruens, lit qui 
magno studio bouas deduerunt Artes, iidem referant Proe- 
mium studiis suis dignum, ac prae inerti hominuin Vulgo 
propriis quibusdam fulgerant honoribus et Privilegiis, unde 
et ipsis benefit, atque aliorum provocetur Industria; quando 
etiam eo praesertim spectant amplissima ilia Jura Univer- 
sitatis Andreanae antiquitus commissa ut, quoties Res pos- 
tulat, idoneos quosque in quavis Facultate viros, vel summis 
qui ad earn Facultatem pertinent, Honoribus araplificare 
queat ; quumque ingenuus et honestus Vir, Benjaminus 
Franklin, Artium Magister, non solum Jurisprudentiae 
coguitione, Morum Integritate, suavique Yitae Consuetudine 
nobis fit commendatus, verum etiam acute iuventis et Exitu 
felici factis Experimentis, quibus Rerum naturalium et 
imprimis Rei Electriae parum hactenus exploratae, Scien- 
tiam locupletavit, tantam sibi conciliaverit per orbem Ter- 
rarum Laudem, ut summos in Republica Literaria mereatur 
Honores ; Hisce nos adducti et Proemia Virtuti debita, 
quantum in nobis est, tribuere volentes, Magistrum Benja- 
minum Franklin supra nominatum Utriusque Juris Docto- 
rem creamus, constituimus et renunciamus, Eumque dein- 
ceps ab universis pro Doctore dignissimum haberi volumus ; 
adjicimusque ei, plena manu quaecumque uspiam Gen- 
tium, Juris Utriusque Doctoribus competunt Privilegia et 
Ornamenta. In cujus Rei Testimonium, hasce nostras 
Privilegii Literas, Chirographis Singulorum confirmatas 
et communi alraae Universitatis Sigillo munitas dedimus 
Andreapoli duodecimo Die Mensis Februarii Anno Domino 
Millessimo Septingentesimo quinquagessimo nono. 

51 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

And. Shaw, S. T. P. Univer.s. Rector et Promotok.' 
Tho. Tullideph, Coll. St'. Salvat. et St'. Leonard 
Praefectus. 
Ja. Murisson, Col. IMav. Praefectus. 
RoBERTus Watson, P. P. Fac. Art. Dec. 
Thomas Simson, Med. et Anat. Candossensis. 
David Young, P. P. 
Joannes Young, P. P. 
David Gregorie, Math. P. 
GuLiEL. Browne, S. T. & H. Ev. P. 
Alex. Morton, H. L. P. 
GuAL. Wilson, G. L. P. 
Geok. Hadon, M.D. Ling. Heb. P. 

TEAXSLATION. 

We, the Rector, Promotor, Prefects of the Colleges, Dean 
of the Faculty of Arts, and the rest of the order of profes- 
sors, of the University of St. Andrew in Scotland, to the 
readers Greeting. 

Whereas it is just and reasonable that those who have 
studied the liberal arts with great assiduity should receive 
therefor a reward worthy of their pursuits, and should be 
conspicuous above the common throng of men through cer- 
tain becoming honors and privileges, whence arises a benefit 
to themselves and the diligence of others is advanced; 
since that end is especially indicated by those most ample 
statutes of the University of St. Andrew anciently en- 
trusted to it, so that as often as the event requires, it may 
be able to magnify men of talent in any department of 
learning, even with the greatest honors that pertain to that 
department. 

And since that worthy and distinguished man, Benjamin 
Franklin, Master of Arts, seems to have been recommended 
not only by his knowledge of jurisprudence, by his integrity 

1 The office of promotor is now abolished. He promoted, or pre- 
sented, to the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor, the successful candi- 
dates for degrees. This is now done by the Dean of Faculties, 

52 



THE SIGNERS THEREOF 

and good morals, and by the agreeable companionship of 
his life, but likewise by his experiments ingeniously de- 
vised and carried to a happy conclusion, by which he has 
enriched the knowledge of natural things and especially of 
Electricity hitherto but little explored, and has won for 
himself such great fame throughout all the earth that he 
deserves the highest honors in the republic of letters. 

Impelled by these considerations and desiring to proffer, 
so far as in us lies, the rewards due to manly talent and 
capacity, we create, constitute, and declare the above named 
Master Benjamin Franklin, Doctor of the Civil and the 
Canon Law, and wish him to be held hereafter by all as a 
most worthy Doctor a,nd further add with a full hand what- 
ever privileges and adornments are anywhere proper for 
Doctors of the Civil and the Canon Law. 

In Testimony whereof, we have published these our 
Letters of Privilege, confirmed by the signatures of each 
and by the common seal of the bountiful University of St. 
Andrews on the Twelfth of February in the year of our 
Lord, 1759. 

Andrew Shaw, Professor of Sacred Theology, Hector 
and Promoter. 

Thomas Tullideph, Principal of the Colleges of St. 
Salvator and St. Leonard. 

James Morisson, Principal of St. Mary's. 

Robert Watson, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of 
the Faculty of Arts. 

Thomas Simson, Chandos Professor of Medicine and 
Anatomy. 

David Young, Professor of Philosophy. 

Joannes Young, " " " 

David Gregorie, " " Mathematics. 

William Browne, Evangelical Professor of Sacred 
Theology and of History. 

Alexander Morton, Professor of the Humanities. 

Walter Wilson, Professor of Greek. 

George Hadon, M. D., Professor of Hebrew. 

53 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

As the University, notwithstanding its poverty, " ap- 
pointed his Diploma to be given to him gratis, the Clerk 
and Arch-Beadle's fees to be paid by the Library Quas- 
tor," it is evident that its officers sought to do Franklin 
every possible honor. 

The degree is thus recorded in the " Minute Book of 
the Senatus Academicus " : — 

"St. Andbews, Feb. 12, 1759. 

" Conferred the Degree of Doctor in Laws on Mr. Ben- 
jamin Franklin, famous for his writings in Electricity, and 
appoint his Diploma to be given him gratis, the Clerk and 
Arch-Beadle's fees to be paid by the Library QuaBstor." 

For this, and for many other courtesies most Idndly 
tendered, I desire to tender my sincere thanks to Mr. J. 
Maitland Anderson, Secretary and Librarian, who has 
composed an historical sketch of his alma mater. 

Mr. Anderson writes : " I am afraid it is not possible 
to find out what induced the University to honor Ben- 
jamin Franklin. I cannot think that any of the pro- 
fessors could have known him personally or been greatly 
interested in his work. Most likely the suggestion 
came from without, as so often happens, and some one 
who knew Franklin and had influence at St. Andrews 
probably originated the idea of conferring upon him a 
degree. So far as I can discover, however, there is 
notliing to prove this or any other theory." 

Very few persons of eminence were ever connected 
with St. Andrews, either as instructors or graduates; 
and though some attention may have been paid to natu- 
ral science in Franklin's time, it could hardly have come 
from men of great erudition. Lord Campbell in his 
life of Erskine says that in 1762-3, when the latter was 
thirteen j'ears old, he attended the mathematical and 
natural philosophy classes of St. Andrews, " taught by 

54 



ELECTRICITY IN SCOTLAND 

professors of considerable prominence, and from them 
he imbibed the small portion of science of which he 
could ever boast." His lordship does not reveal the 
source of his information as to the "professors of con- 
siderable prominence," but if any such there were, their 
very names have long since vanished from human 
ken. 

The exact source of the bit of enterprise, seemingly 
inspired, that led the authorities of this remote, incon- 
spicuous, and unprosperous seat of learning to bestow 
its honors upon Franklin will in all likelihood never be 
known. Though the records show that the dignity was 
offered in consequence of " his writings in Electricity," 
there is no reason to believe that any one connected 
with St. Andrews was especially interested in that 
branch of research, or was closely in touch with the 
outer world and its study of such pursuits. 

Some attention, however, must have been paid to 
electrical research in Scotland even before Franklin 
gave it such renewed life and impetus, for he tells us in 
his autobiography that the first electrical experiments 
which came under his notice and awakened his interest 
were performed in Boston in 1746 by " Dr. Spence, who 
was lately arrived from Scotland." The identity of 
this person seems to be utterly lost, and I can find no 
trace of him whatever. This origin of Franklin's devo- 
tion to electricity renders the distinction offered by St. 
Andrews eminently appropriate. 

At an earlier date than this, to wit, in 1727, Franklin 
was indebted to an appreciative son of Scotland for no 
slight stimulus and support. In 1727 he and one Mere- 
dith started a printing-press in Philadelphia. "The 
general opinion," he states in his Autobiography, " was 
that it must fall, but Dr. Baird (whom you [z. e. his son 
William] and I saw many years after at his native 

55 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

place, St. Andrews in Scotland),^ gave a contrary opin- 
ion. ' For the industry of that Franklin,' says he, ' is 
superior to anything of the kind I ever saw,' etc." This 
praise must have made a deep and abiding impression, 
for the above was written in 1771, forty-four years after 
the incident occurred, — years well crammed with hard 
work and all the mental and physical wear and tear and 
continual friction that tend to benumb the memory and 
belittle the past. 

During the eighteenth century St. Andrews bestowed 
its liL.D. upon very few persons and these mostly of 
local or limited distinction. From 1754 to 1764, — that 
is, five years before and five years after the date of 
Franklin's degree, — the " Minute Book " reveals none 
but the following that were so favored : — 

^ This is the only proof to be found in the writings of Franklin 
that he ever went to St. Andrews, though, of course, he would natu- 
rally have gone there, as it is but forty miles from Edinburgh by land 
and much less by water. 

Dr. Patrick Baird, " chirurgeon," was a man of considerable note 
in his day, both professionally and socially. He is often mentioned 
in the Colonial records of Pennsylvania. He held an office in Phila- 
delphia analogous to that now termed Port Physician, and in 1723 
was Secretary of the Colonial Council, holding the office till 1743, 
when failing health prompted his resignation. Soon after this he 
returned to Scotland, and all further trace of him was lost. He was 
not, in all probability, alive at the time of Franklin's visit. These 
facts are mostly taken from "The Early History of Medicine in 
Philadelphia," by George W. Norris. He must have lived a very 
retired life in St. Andrews, for I have not been able to find his name 
in any documents or records whatever, not even on a tombstone or 
in any deed or will. 

In Philadelphia there was a " Noble Town House, or Guild Hall, 
built in 1698." 

" The Hall attracted to itself everything ; in 1730 the vendue room 
in the northwest corner was rented to Patrick Baird, Chirurgeon. 
His name is on the First Dancing Assembly List and there exists a 
portrait of him, both tending to prove that he was a person of some 
importance." 

Penn. Mag. of Hist, and Biog. 18S0. No. 2, p. 165, art. by Town- 
send Ward. 

56 



FRANKLIN'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

1758. Thomas McDowel. 

1759. George Stewart, Professor at Edinburgh. 
*' Benjamin Franklin. 

1763. Sir James Gray, Minister at Naples. 
" Archibald Menzies — 

only four degrees in the shade — names which have 
thus for a moment come to the surface solely by reason 
of their collateral connection with Benjamin Franklin, 
and which will now pass forever into the depths of that 
profound oblivion from which they would otherwise 
never have emerged. 

No evidence appears on the records of the University 
of any acknowledgment by Franklin of the dignit}'- he 
received, but its library still contains a small volume 
presented by him April 19, 1759. It is entitled "New 
Experiments and Observations on Electricity made at 
Philadelphia in America, By Benjamin Franklin, Esq., 
and communicated in several letters to Peter Collinson, 
Esq., of London, F. R. S. Part I. The Second Edition, 
London, Printed and sold by D. Henry and R. Cave at 
St. John's Gate, 1754." There is no autograph of the 
donor, and nothing to connect it with his name as such 
except these words in the handwriting of Mr. John 
Young, who was then Librarian : " Bibliothecae publicae 
Universitatis Sti. Andreae donum dedit Author." A 
gift to the public Library of the University of St. An- 
drew from the author.^ 

This book is apparently the only visible memento 
now existing in Scotland of Franklin's stay there. It 

^ It is a remarkable coincidence that it was on Nov. 30, 1753, St. 
Andrew's day, — " festum Sancti Andreae," — the anniversary of the 
foundation of the Royal Society, that the Earl of Macclesfield, its 
President, delivered an oration in which he warmly eulogized the 
discoveries of Franklin and at the same time presented the Copley 
gold medal which had been voted him. 

57 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

must surely have been designed as a recognition of 
the honor received from St. Andrews, as he gave no 
books to the University of Edinburgh or Glasgow, at 
least, none from him are now to be found in their 
libraries, and this though their officers treated him 
with peculiar deference and hospitality. Since they 
tendered liim no degree, he did not think fit to offer 
any more substantial return for their kindness than his 
society and his thanks. 

As the work was merely a pamphlet published at two 
and sixpence and cost the donor nothing whatever but 
the postage ; as he had no fees to pay and was not the 
actual author thereof in spite of the claims of its title- 
page, — it might seem that Franklin got his degree at a 
very cheap rate, but in the long run honors were easy, 
and the University realized a good return for its out- 
lay, since, though perchance unwittingly, it "hitched 
its wagon to a star," and among all its laureati of the 
eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin, " Juris Utrius- 
que Doctor," is the only name that will be to St. 
Andrews an eternal endowment and keep its name in 
the minds of men as long as the lightning flashes and 
the thunder rolls. 

Though there is no evidence on the records that the 
University authorities ever acknowledged the receipt 
of the work I have mentioned, they might have felt 
perfectly easy on that score if they had known that, 
though published in Franklin's name, it was largely 
composed of the reports of experiments that he never 
performed and of observations that he never made. 
But this was the truth, and it still remains to serve 
as an example of that easy-going diplomatic irrespon- 
sibility so characteristic of Franklin and which steadily 
increased with advancing yeare. Though Franklin was 
undoubtedly the originator and dominating spirit of the 

58 



REV. MR. KINNERSLEY 

whole enterprise, though his broad, penetrating, and 
philosophic grasp of the infant science and of its grand 
possibilities and his ingenious suggestions as to its 
development and application to many forms of profit 
and utility through various tests, were far superior to 
the efforts of any other mind of his time, the fact 
remains, — and it was admitted by himself, — that 
three-fourths of the experiments and observations were 
originated and performed by his "ingenious neighbor," 
as he describes him, Ebenezer Kinnersley, ^ who was 
fully his equal in the novelty, comprehension, and intel- 
ligence of his electrical studies, and most of the othei-s 
by Philip Syng and Thomas Hopkinson, though he 
never named them in his letters or other scientific com- 
munications, and though he allowed the results of their 

^ Rev. Mr. Kinnersley was in Boston during the winter of 1751-2 
and gave numerous lectures on Electricity in Faneuil Hall. James 
Bowdoin writes to Franklin, Dec. 21, 1751, in praise of these as 
"greatly pleasing to all sorts of people," to which he adds, " 1 think 
they prove most effectually your doctrine of electricity." 

Mr. Kinnersley's experiments, to judge from his prospectus, must 
have been very ingenious and entertaining, especially in an age so 
barren of amusing novelties. No. 10 was "An artificial spider, ani- 
mated by the electric fire, so as to appear like a live one. 

" No. 13. A leaf of the most weighty of metals suspended in the 
air, as is said of Mahomet's tomb. 

"No. 18. The salute repulsed by the ladies' fire; or fire darting 
from a lady's lips, so that she may defy any person to salute her." 

In the second lecture we have, — 

" A piece of money drawn out of a person's mouth in spite of his 
teeth, yet without touching it, or offering him the least violence." 

"Spirits kindled by fire darting from a lady's eyes (without a 
metaphor)." 

There were many others no less exciting and mirth-provoking. 

Kinnersley's advertisement appeared first in the " Pennsylvania 
Gazette" of April 11, 1751. He afterwards published a pamphlet, 
giving an account of his two lectures, which is similar to his adver- 
tisement but not precisely identical. The pamphlet was evidently 
designed to serve as a sort of announcement, or synopsis, of his 
lectures. 

59 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

investigations to be published as his own.^ The experi- 
ments are occasionally referred to as " otir experiments," ^ 
and it is stated that " We had observed " some particu- 
lar phenomena, but these pronouns might mean any- 
thing or nothing, and, moreover. Dr. Fothergill, in his 
preface to the above work (which Franklin must have 
seen), praises Franklin and no one else as "the ingeni- 
ous author," and also asserts that " the experiments 
which our author relates are most of them peculiar to 
himself," wliich was, and is, the exact opposite of the 
truth. 

In Franklin's own copy of the work he has, however, 
redeemed his disingenuousness so far as to note the 
initials of the discoverer against each experiment, as 
appears in the Franklin Bibliography, by Paul Leicester 
Ford, page 41. 2 

Dr. Priestley, in his " History of Electricity," which 
appeared in 1767, remarks of Franklin's letters ; " It is 
not easy to say Avhether we are most pleased with the 

^ In a letter from Franklin published by Bigelow in his edition of 
Franklin's works and written to Peter CoUinson, " 11 July, 1747," 
certain notes appear that were presumably added by Franklin some 
years after. These notes are in moderate praise of Mr. Hopkinson 
and Mr. Kinnersley. The letter itself was not printed till some years 
after the publication of the third edition of "Experiments and 
Observations." 

John Bigelow, in his edition of the " Complete Works of Benjamin 
Franklin," refers to the continuation of Franklin's life published in 
1790 by Dr. Stuber, of Philadelphia, "who seems to have enjoyed 
peculiar opportunities of obtaining full and authentic information 
upon Franklin's electric discoveries." The doctor does not mention 
one of the latter's assistants except Mr. Kinnersley, and then but 
indirectly, so as to " damn him with faint j^and uncertain] praise." 

2 I take occasion to state here that the above " Franklin's own 
copy," which was published in 1751, has mysteriously disappeared, 
since Mr. Ford claims to have seen it, and that I can find no trace of 
it after a diligent and exhaustive search, including an application to 
Mr. Ford himself, who seems to have forgotten where he saw it, 
though he says he consulted it at the Philadelphia Athenseura. 

60 



ELECTRICAL QUERIES 

simplicity aud perspicuity with which they are written, 
the wording with which the author proposes every 
hypothesis of his own, or the noble frankness with 
which he relates his mistakes, when they were cor- 
rected by subsequent experiments." Franklin's " noble 
frankness" would have been more obvious, if he had 
given credit where credit was due. As it is, the part 
taken by Kinnersley and his associates resembles the 
" story of Bel and the Dragon cut off from the end of 
Daniel," which was relegated to the Apocrypha because 
the prophet never took the trouble to mention it, even 
indirectly. 

Certain queries naturally occur under this aspect of 
the case. 

Firstly. If Franklin did not perform the experiments, 
why did he tacitly claim them entirely as his own and 
allow them to be printed with no credit to his assistants 
and thus assume all the responsibility therefor ? 

Secondly. If he did not perform them, why did he 
afterwards attribute them to Kinnersley and the rest ? 

Thirdly. As he says in his autobiography, written in 
1784, that he "added a number of new ones" to the 
experiments that he had seen in Boston, why did he not 
publish these, or some of them, instead of those he did 
publish ? 

Was it because they were les's important, striking, and 
original than those of his assistants? If so, Mr. Kin- 
nersley and his friends should receive more credit 
therefor than has ever been awarded them. 

Was it because they were more important, striking, or 
original ? Then why did he not assert his peculiar and 
distinctive claim to them ? 

These queries are easier to propound than to answer. 

As Franklin never made use of his St. Andrews 
degree himself and nowhere refers to it in his letters or 

61 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

other writings ; and as a diligent search fails to detect 
all editorial mention of it in any of the papers of that 
period, even in the " Pennsylvania Gazette," of which 
he was then joint editor and proprietor with David 
Hall, — one is justified in the inference that Franklin 
cared little for this new dignity and was not particu- 
larly desirous tliat it should be generally known. And 
apparently, it might have remained hidden for a long 
time,^ had it not been for the expeditious smartness of 
his nephew, Benjamin ]\Iecom, the son of his favorite 
sister, Jane, with whom he was in familiar correspond- 
ence and to whom he probably confided it at an early 
date. 

In April, 1760, a pamphlet of fifty-seven pages was pub- 
lished in London with this title : " The Interest of Great 
Britain Considered with Regard to her Colonies and 
the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe," It bore 
the name of no writer, though subsequently acknowl- 
edged by Franklin as " my pamphlet." In the ensuing 
September this was republished in Boston by Mecom, to 
whom Franklin had probably sent a copy of it. The 
new printer, with an eye to the glory of his family and 

* Harvard College seems to have awakened to a conception of this 
honor conferred upon her benefactor about seventeen years after its 
bestowal ; at least, it was in 1776 that Tresident Langdon first ex- 
perienced a realizing sense thereof and caused it to be inserted in 
the Catalogue issued in that year. 

In the "Pennsylvania Gazette" for March 12, 1761, is to be 
found a most entertaining and original advertisement of " A course 
of Electrical Experiments accompanied with Lectures on the Nature 
and Properties of Lightning," to be delivered by Ebenezer Kin- 
nersley, A. M.," the " ingenious neighbor aforesaid." It is too long for 
full quotation, but the lecturer mentions "the ingenious and worthy 
Dr. Franklin." This is the only time he is so called in his own 
paper, which is rather strange when one reflects that Franklin was 
for years not only editor and proprietor, but a constant contributor 
to its columns, and that it was the greatest paper in the Colonies, as 
far as regards circulation and advertising patronage. 

62 



NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE 

to his own profits, added to the London title the 
following paragraph : — 

" As the very ingenious, useful and worthy Author 
of this Pamphlet [B n F n, LL. D.] is well- 
known and much esteemed by the principal Gentlemen 
in England and America; and seeing that his other 
works have been received with universal Applause; 
the present Production needs no further Recommenda- 
tion to a generous, a free, and intelligent and publick- 
spirited People." This was the first instance in which 
Franklin's new degree was publicly announced on this 
side of the Atlantic. The work was advertised in the 
" Boston Gazette and Country Journal " for Sept. 22, 
1760. 

The mention of Benjamin Mecom and his agency in 
the introduction of his uncle's degree to the notice of 
the Colonies leads me to call attention to the fact that 
it was he who first printed and published on this side of 
the Atlantic our present national motto. I give here- 
with a short account of this incident, which is the more 
interesting by reason of its having taken place in Boston. 

On the 31st of August, 1758, Mecom brought out at 
"The New Printing Office " the first number of "The 
New England Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure," 
of which he was both editor and publisher. It existed 
for a few months only, and then passed into general 
forge tfulness. Two solitary copies, however, in a rather 
imperfect state, have survived to this day, one hav- 
ing found a fit and final harbor in the Public Library 
of its place of birth, and the other being now in the 
library of the American Antiquarian Society at Wor- 
cester, Mass., to which it was bequeathed by Isaiah 
Thomas, author of the well-known " History of Print- 
ing." The former copy was one of the first edition for 
the month of August, the latter for the succeeding 

63 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

October. It was a small affair at best, six inches by 
four in size, and was sold for eight pence. It contained 
about sixty pages, poorly and dimly printed, augmented 
by a puff from the editor, conspicuously placed, which 
temis it *'A very suitable present for the instruction 
of youth," though a regard for truth leads one to say 
that this assertion is hardly confirmed by the contents, 
which justify the inference that if they were "suitable 
for the instruction " of the youth of Boston in 1758, 
both their morals and their intelligence must have been 
in a very rudimentary state, and the same might well 
be said of those of the editor.^ 

In the centre of the titlepage of each number was a 
hand holding a bouquet, which, though larger than the 
similar design so familiar to all who have seen the 
" Gentleman's Magazine," was obviously a rather rough 
and uncouth adaptation thereof, " conveyed " by Mecom 
without any reference to its origin. It is quite likely 
that the editor was indebted, directly or indirectly, to 
his -famous and enterprising uncle for this figure-head, 
since Franklin was a contributor to, and a persistent 
reader and eulogizer of, the " Gentleman's Magazine," 
and had even offered to act as its American acfent.^ 
On either side of the bouquet were the two mottoes-, 
equally familiar as its earliest companions, "Prodesse 
et delectare," and "E pluribus unum," this being the 

1 For the privilege of publishing the accompanying fac-simile I 
desire to express my indebtedness to tlie great kindness of Mr. Ed- 
mund M. Barton, the Librarian of the American Antiquarian Society. 

2 See Franklin's letters to "William Strahan, dated'" Phila.27 Nov. 
1755," and " New York, 2 July, 1756." 

The promises in these letters Franklin never undertook to fulfil. 
The only advertisements of the " Gentleman's Magazine " now to be 
found are in the columns of Franklin's own paper, the "Pennsyl- 
vania Gazette," during the winter of 1750, where it figures with other 
periodicals "to be furnished by Mr. Potts, comptroller of the GeneraF 
Post Office, London, at 2s. 6c?. each number or £1.10 per annum." 

64 



{ N°'3 1 



THE 

New- 




Magazine 

Of Knowledge and Pleafure. 

Prodefe ^ Delegare llf^P^^J^^ ^ Pluribus Unum» 

Alluring Profit -^ixh Delight we blend 5 
Ofie^otit of many ^xo the Public fend. 

By various Authors. 

1 1 I 'l 

Yc (lull know themhy their Fruits. Do Me« gather 
Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thiftles f Every good 
Tree bringeth forth good Fruit ; but a corrupt Tree 
bringeth fortli evil Fruit. A good Tree cannot hrin^ 
forth evil Fruit, neither can a corrupt Tree bring forth, 
good Fruit. 

i ■ ' . ,g 

Printed hy Benjamin Mecom, and Sold at his 
Shop under the New Printine--Office, ttfor the Court-" 
Houfe, *«, Corn-hill in BOS'TON. 



I 



E PLURIBUS UNUM 

fii-st advent of the latter in any American work. Be- 
neath there were to be seen, in the October issue, these 
two lines, plainly intended as a translation, or poetical 
extension of the same. 

" Alluring Profit with Delight we blend, 
One, out of many, to the Public send." 

The last is especially noticeable as a proof of the 
meaning attached by the writer to " E pluribus unum," 
which did not necessarily signify to his mind "one 
composed of many," but "one selected from many," 
either of which the construction of the Latin language 
allowed him to choose as he preferred. Tliis latter 
was the meaning given to the phrase by its original 
author, as will be hereafter seen. The same sense 
is implied by the words " Two out of Twenty " in the 
second verse of a silly and grotesque quatrain which 
was printed on the titlepage of the first number, and 
which evidently refers to the motto in question. 

*' Kind readers, Pray what would you have me to do 
If, out of Twenty, I should please but Two ? 
One likes the Turkey's Wing, and one the leg, 
The Vulgar boil, (the Learned roast) an Egg." 

These lines probably came from Mecom's own pen. 
The couplet is poor enough, but these must be admitted 
to be about as poor as they make 'em. 

The magazine was published anonymously, though 
Mecom affected to hide his well-known agency under 
the nom dc guerre of "Urbanus Filter," which was, of 
course, suggested by the " S3lvanus Urban " similarly 
used by Cave at the foundation of the " Gentleman's 
Magazine" in 1731. It would naturally give the im- 
pression, and was doubtless so intended, that Mecom 
had a certain vague and remote connection with that 
5 65 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

periodical, perhaps even that he had inherited the 
mantle of Cave which had fallen from him four years 
previously. Surely, it must have been the shade of 
that first magazinist to which Mecom addressed the 
" Poetical Dedication to a good old Gentleman " in his 
first issue. 

" Your easy presence checks no decent joys, 

Which gains the confidence of girls and boys. 

You, e'en the dissohite admire and court 
(Attracted by your freedom of deport), 

Put on a graceful looseness -when 't is fit, 

And, laughing, can instruct the bluntest wit." 

For fear lest poetry of this quality and the trans- 
atlantic connection at which it hinted, and the various 
other arts by which Mecom sought to increase his cir- 
culation, might fail to entice a sufficient number of sub- 
scribers, the general cupidity was appealed to by this 
offer : " Those who buy six of this magazine, shall 
receive a seventh gratis." 

From Harvard Franklin never received any more 
memorable tribute of esteem than the somewhat scanty 
courtesy of an A.M., conferred in 1753, while on vari- 
ous subsequent occasions the degree of LL.D. was 
bestowed upon Washington, Gates, the two Adamses, 
La Fayette, Jefferson, Hamilton, and upon various 
other friends and colleagues of his, whose claims to 
scholastic honors were, to say the least, no greater than 
his own, while he was, moreover, a genuine and loyal 
son of Boston and a benefactor of the college. 

There is this to be said, however, in behalf of Har- 
vard. She was the first to recognize Franklin's claims 
to academic distinction as a scientific Columbus, and 
this fact was duly appreciated by him, for he was evi- 
dently more grateful for this A. M. than for all the 
collegiate or university honors that he afterwards re- 

66 



BASKERVILLE'S VIRGIL 

ceived, and this inference is fully justified b}' the little 
notice he ever took of them and by the slight return 
he ever made therefor. In spite of some sarcastic and 
disparaging remarks made in his younger days, he seems 
to have felt towards Harvard a loyalty that he had for 
no other college. Besides other proofs of his grateful 
interest and attachment, in 1758 he presented a bust 
of Lord Chatham, certain electrical apparatus prepared 
by himself, and a copy of the works of Virgil in one 
volume printed by the celebrated Baskerville at Birm- 
ingham in 1757, and, as he writes in a letter to Mr. 
Hubbard from London, dated "April 28th, 1758," 
" thought to be the most curiously printed of any book 
hitherto done in the world." This work fortunately 
escaped the ruinous fixe of 1764, and is still preserved 
in perfect condition, together with another book pre- 
sented by Franklin, one of the fii'st edition of his 
famous pamphlet, "Experiments and Observations on 
Electricity" published by Cave in 1751. In accord- 
ance with the author's invariable custom, neither of 
these works contains his autograph or gives any sign 
of his former ownership. The Virgil has a list of about 
five hundred subscribers, and it is interesting to notice 
that " Ben Franklin, Esq., of Philadelphia, F. R. S.," 
ordered "six Books." In this way he was able to render 
significant and well-deserved aid to a fellow-printer, aid 
that must have been all the more appreciated from the 
fact that there were only five other subscribers in the 
whole number who are credited with more than one copy 
each.^ 

1 Baskerville's Virgil had a pre-eminent reputation among classical 
scholars and men of literary tastes in its day. In tho summer of 
1709, Dr. Johnson passed some part of the time at Oxford, from 
•which place he wrote to Rev. Thomas Warton : — 

Many years ago, when I used to read in the library of your Col- 
lege, [Trinity, Oxford], I promised to recompence the College for that 

67 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

I give herewith a copy from the record of the vote 
of the President and Fellows of Harvard and also of 
the diploma conferring the degree. It is probable that 
Franklin was chiefly indebted for this honor to John 
Wintlirop, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy at Harvard for over forty years, and a 
Fellow of the Royal Society, who was at that time by 
far the most learned and eminent teacher of those 
branches in the Colonies, and naturally gave a cordial 
welcome and encouragement to so promising a student 
in his own pursuits. 

permission, by adding to their books a Baskerville's Virgil. I have 
now sent it and desire you to deposit it on tlie shelves in my name. 

Boswell's Life ofJohnsoiif vol. ii. p. G7. 

To the above Dr. George Birkbeck Hill in his admirable and ex- 
haustive edition of that work adds, " It has this inscription in a blank 
leaf: 'Ilunc librum D. Samuel Johnson, eo quod hie loci studiis 
interdum vacaret.'" 

Franklin had already proved himself no mean rival of Baskerville, 
and his reputation in this regard has survived in England to the 
present day. Quaritch's Catalogue, dated July 20, ISQ.j, has the 
following entries: — 

"Cicero. M. T. Cicero's Cato Major, or his Discom-se of Old-Age: 
with explanatory notes [translated and annotated by James 
Logan]. Small 4to, fine copy in brown morocco extra, gilt edges, 
enclosed in a case. Philadelphia : Printed and Sold by B. 
Franklin, 1744. £25. 0. 0. The same, a matchless copy in the 
original blue-paper wrapper, uncut; enclosed in two cases, the 
outside one of red morocco gilt. 1744. £100. 0. 0." 

Chief Justice Logan was the second of the three famous worthies 
of Pennsylvania, of whom William Penn was the first, and Benjamin 
Franklin the third. Franklin's preface to the book describes it as 
"this first Translation of a Classic in this Western World," and ex- 
presses a hope that "Philadelphia shall become the Seat of the 
American Muses." 

It is a masterpiece of translation and of typography, and, by its 
combination of the two great Pennsylvanian names, has deservedly 
attained to the rank of an American classic indispensable to every 
collector of books illustrating the progress of art and science in the 
New World." 



DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON 

The honorary degrees conferred by Harvard were al- 
ways much fewer than those of Yale, and in 1753 but one 
other is recorded besides that of Franklin. This was an 
A.M. granted to Rev. William Johnson, who had gradu- 
ated at Yale five years before at the age of eighteen. 
This seems to have been his only claim to the honor, 
though according to his biographer. Dr. Chandler, he 
was "a young gentleman of fine genius and amicable 
disposition and an excellent classical scholar," all which 
may be taken for what it is worth. However, he evi- 
dently had a strong pull from some source, apparently 
through his father. Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson,^ for at 
the time of his death in 1756 he had already received 
the honorary degree of A.M. from both Oxford and 
Cambridge. 

At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard 
College in Cambridge, July 23d, 1753, 

It was Voted That whereas Mr. Benjamin Franklin, of 
Philadelphia, hath made great improvements in Philoso- 
phical learning and particularly with respect to Electricity, 
whereby his repute hath been greatly advanced in the 
learned world not only in Great Britain, but ev'n in the 
Kingdom of France also, we therefore, wishing to do honor 
to a person of such considerable improvements in learning, 
do admit him to the degree of Master of Arts in Harvard 
College. And it is hereby also directed that the diploma 
to be given in this regard to the s'd Mr. Franklin be varied 
from the common form aggreable [s/c] to the preamble 

1 For three years Dr, Samuel Jolinson was the only Episcopal 
clergj'man in Connecticut, and in 1753 he became the First President 
of King's (now Columbia) College in New York. In 174G he pub- 
lished a "System of Morals," which was so much approved by 
Franklin that he printed in 1752 an enlarged edition of it, under the 
title of "Elementary Philosophy." This was intended for the use 
of Franklin's new Philadelphia college, of which he urged Dr. 
Johnson to become the President. 

69 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

to this vote and that this vote be presented to the Hon'"''-' 
and Rev*" the Overseers for their approbation. 

Memo. This vote approv'd by the Overseers unani- 
mously. 

Senatus Acaderaiae Cantabrigiensis in Kova Anglia 
Omnibus in Christo Fidelibus, has Literas inspecturis vel 
audituris Salutem in Domino Sempiternam. 

Quandoquidem Dominus Benjamin Franklin, Armig' de 
Philadelphia Americana, Experimentis non vulgaribus 
praesertim circa Miranda Vis electricae Phoenomena, Philo- 
sophiam locupletavit, unde apud Doctos non in Brittania 
solum, verum etiam in Gallia, Eama ejus pervenerit, et 
Ipse de Orbe literato optime meruit. 

Nos, igitur, studiosi debitiis Doctrinae Honoribus hu- 
jusmodi Homines, Eo Concilio ut ad Scientiam ulterius 
provehorendam, et Ipsi et Alii incitarentur, ISTotum Eaci- 
mus, quod (Consentibus Honorandis admodum et Eeveren- 
dis Academiae nostrae luspectoribus) Virum ante dictum 
dignum judicavimus, qui Gradu in Artibus Magistrali 
donetur; Idem Dominum Benjaminen Franklin Armigerum 
Magistrum in Artibus decrevimus, constituimus et renun- 
ciavimus, dantes et concidentes Ei omnia Insignia, Jura et 
Privilegia, Dignitates ac Honores ad Gradum. 

The Senate of the College at Cambridge in New England 
to all Christian believers who may see or hear these presents, 
an eternal greeting in the Lord. 

. Whereas Dominus Benjamin Franklin, Esquire, of Phila- 
delphia, has enriched science by remarkable experiments, 
especially as to the wonderful phenomena of electric force, 
through which his fame has extended to the learned not 
only in Great Britain but even in France and he has thus 
deserved well of the world of letters. 

"VVe, therefore, zealous in behalf of the honors due to 
such acquirements, and with the design that both ourselves 
and others may be incited to their farther development, 
hereby make known (with the consent of the very honor- 
able and reverend Overseers of our College) that we have 

70 



DEGREE FROM YALE 

judged tlie said man worthy of a master's degree in Arts 
and we have therefore constituted, pronounced and declared 
Dominus Benjamin Frankliu, Master of Arts, giving and 
bestowing upon him all the insignia, rights and privileges, 
dignities and honors, attaching to that degree. 

The Harvard A. M. was soon followed by an A. M. 
from Yale,^ which Avas conferred on Sept. 12, 1753. 
His degree was not voted with any especial ceremony 
or preamble and appears on the Corporation records 
merely with nine others, all of whom but one, Judge 
William Gushing, of Massachusetts, were persons of 
no prominence whatever, and apparently were thus 
honored simply because they were graduates of Harvard. 
This is obvious from the fact that " B. A., Harvard," is 
attached to their names and nothing else. And it also 
seems evident that Franklin was awarded his degree 
merely in order to follow Harvard's example and not 
from any especial appreciation of his scientific or other 
deserts. He seems to have made no acknowledgment 
in any shape for the honor due him, though there is 
a tradition that he " repeatedly gave valuable books 
to the library." If he did thus, it is very odd that 
there is neither book nor record to prove it. 

The truly appreciative and laudatory language of 
both the vote and the diploma of Harvard gave them 
a peculiar meaning and value which must have made 
them much more acceptable to Franklin than the per- 

1 This agrees entirely with the mention thereof by Franklin in his 
autobiography. He says, "In 1753 the Collegp of Cambridge pre- 
sented me with the degree of Master of Arts and Yale did the same, 
in consideration of my improvements and discoveries in the electric 
branch of natural philosophy." Thus Harvard Is placed first. 

"Yale College first, then Harvard, conferred upon him the hono- 
rary degree of Master of Arts." — Paktox's Life of Franklin, vol, i. p. 
293. 

71 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

functory action of Yale, Avhich merely named him 
" A.M." without comment. 

In the Triennial Catalogue of Harvard for 1845, Rev. 
John L. Sibley, who then took charge of it as editor 
for the first time, celebrated the occasion by various 
" changes and improvements," as he alleged, and by 
" the correction of hundreds of errors." These errors 
and corrections are not very apparent, but it is quite 
obvious that he went out of his way to introduce 
at least one change for which he had no authority and 
wliich has continued to this day. He altered Franklin's 
LL.D. from St. Andrews, as it was then rightly abbre- 
viated and which always accompanied his name as the 
proper equivalent of " J.U.D.," into " U. J.D.," and 
six years later into " J.U.D." Though these letters 
did rightly stand for " Juris Utriusque Doctor," Doctor 
of the Canon and of the Civil Law, they were almost 
never used, and there was not one instance thereof 
among all the then graduates of Harvard, and but one, 
and that from Palermo, among all the honorary degrees. 
Hence this alteration was without sense of precedent, 
and must have come from the veiy itch of meddling 
and from an ignorance of the proverb about "letting 
well alone." One may here ask, since Mr. Sibley had 
directly under his eyes the LL.D. used by Dr. Palfrey, 
as representing the degree he also had received from 
St. Andrews so late as 1838, why did he not " try liis 
prentice han' " on that, as well as on Franklin ? 

Before proceeding farther I wish to say a few words 
in regard to the proper meaning of the LL.D. that 
Franklin received from St. Andrews, and as to the 
exact difference between it and the LL.D. wliich the 
University of Cambridge has long been accustomed to 
confer, and which is to outward seeming the same. 

As one result of Henry VIII.'s proposed divorce and 

72 



MEANING OF LL.D. 

his subsequent papal disillusion, the king, in 1535, for- 
bade the study of the decretals of the Romish Church, — 
i. e. the Canon Law, — at tlie University of Cambridge, 
and ordered " that no one should read it, nor should 
any degree in that law be conferred." ^ As Thomas 
Fuller says in his history of that institution, " King 
Henry, stung with the dilatory pleas of the canonists 
at Rome in point of his marriage, did in revenge destroy 
their whole hive throughout his own Universities." 
This action of his Majesty did not, however, in any way 
affect the form of the degree which Cambridge had 
always granted, and it still continued to bestow its 
customary LL.D., which originally signified " Doctor 
of both Laws." This it was enabled to do from the fact 
that the sense of this abbreviation had greatly changed 
from times long past, when it had been the outward 
and visible sign that those who received it had been 
pronounced worthy to teach both the Canon and the 
Civil Law. At Cambridge this degree seems at that 
period to have gradually lost all definite or restricted 
meaning, until no one could learn, without inquiring, 
the exact nature of the honor conferred. It no longfer 
signified merely " Doctor of both Laws," ^ i. e. after 1475, 
or thereabouts. 

1 John Adams wrote that "the Canon Law gave the Romish 
clergy authority to license all sorts of crimes and enabled them to 
chain human nature fast for ages in a cruel, shameful, and deplor- 
able servitude to the Pope and his subordinate tyrants for the pur- 
poses of tyi-anny, cruelty, and lust." — The (Janoii mid Feudal Law. 
This was certainly the opinion of Uenry VIII., and of his people, 
teste Mr. Froude, whatever may have been the more immediate 
motives that influenced the king towards his abolition of the whole 
system in England. In this matter Henry VIII. and Adams were as 
one. 

2 If the reader will consult the "Athenae Cantabrigienses " of 
Charles Henrj' Cooper and Thompson Cooper, published in 1858, he 
will find abundant proof of this statement. Though examples are 
numerous, I will simply give one of each class to illustrate it. They 

73 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The Cambridge LL.D. has continued to diverge ever 
more and more widely from its first meaning down to 
the present day, when the degrees are actually taken 
*■'■ injure;'^ i.e. in law generally, which so far as concerns 
the degree itself as a university honor signifies nothing. 
The candidate is thus presented by the Regius Professor 
of Law : — 

" Dignissimi Domini ; Dom. pro Chan, et tota Aca- 
demia. Presento vobis hunc virum, quem scio tam 
moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad titulum asse- 
quendum Doctoris in jure designati ; idque tibi fide 
mea praesto totique academiae." 

The University authorities claim that "Doctor in 
Jure" is equivalent to " Legum Doctor; " i.e. Doctor of 

are all taken from dates previous to 1535. In 1488 Henry Rudd 
received the degree of LL.D., though he was only " a doctor of 
the canon law." Edward Shouldham, "doctor of the civil law," 
was honored with the same in 1501. John Cotworth in 1520 was 
"doctor of both laws" and LL.D. John Dakyn, who took a 
regular course of law and became an advocate, "proceeded," as they 
say, from LL.B. in 1525 to LL.D. in 1.529; Rev. Nicholas Carr, in 
1518, received his degree " honoris causa," as a sort of clerical 
dignity of preferment; John Taylor assumed the title as " doctor of 
decrees," and it was confirmed to him as chaplain to Henry VIII., 
when in France in 1520. Christopher Urswyke, " an honest and 
wise priest," was favored with the degree, and with vast preferment 
as well, by Henry VII. for his services to his mother, Margaret, 
Countess of Richmond, before and after his accession to the throne in 
1485. Here are no less than seven instances of the bestowal of 
the degree of LL.D., and in each case its meaning is apparently 
different. 

At Oxford, however, LL.D. never implied anything but " Doctor 
of both the Laws." It is so written in English by Anthony a 
Wood ("a man to be depended on for accuracy," — Carlyle) in his 
" Fasti Oxonienses " for the years 1540 and 1542, while in 1544 we 
find the words "Not one Doctor of the Civil Law, or LL." Tliis 
last degree, however, was very rarely voted. It was replaced by the 
form D. C. L., or Doctor of the Civil Law, and this has continued 
in use for its distinctive honorary degree ever since. There is no 
reason to infer that LL. ever signified the laws of Justinian. 

74 



DOCTOR IN UTROQUE JURE 

Laws. The learned professor whom I have before 
quoted says that " Legiim here means the hiws of Jus- 
tinian as opposed to the decreta and decretales of the 
Popes. ' Leges ' is therefore equivalent to Jus Civile, 
or Jus Romanorum, and LL.D. is, in its proper signifi- 
cation, exactly equivalent to D. C. L. (Doctor of Civil 
Law)." 

If this view be correct, how does the professor ac- 
count for the various aspects of the LL.D. as revealed 
in my note ? If that degree be the exact equivalent of 
D. C. L.,. how could it have been conferred in 1488 on 
Henry Rudd, who was simply "Doctor of the Canon 
Law," and on numerous others similarly situated ? At 
Oxford as far back as 1449, B. C. L. and B. Can. L. 
were conferred on the same day. 

The wise tell us that "jus" means law in general; 
i.e. the aggregate of all binding laws ; wliile " lex " is 
merely a "species of the genus jus," one of the manifold 
forms in wliich " jus " makes itself felt by communities 
and nations. Hence a " Doctor in Jure " represents a 
teacher of the law in general, while "Legum Doctor" 
is a teacher of the various statutes that regulate the ad- 
ministration of justice and the well-being of a nation. 

Thus the two terms can never be equivalent, though 
they may be made to appear so through a wilful perver- 
sion of the language. A " Doctor in Jure " might well 
be ignorant of the statutes of a nation, and a " Legum 
Doctor " might be quite unfit to teach the law as an 
abstraction. 

The upshot of the whole matter is that Franklin's 
degree ^ was the same in form and substance as in the 

1 Several examples of the use of " in utroque jure," or "utriusque 
juris," are given in " Grace Book A, Containing the Proctor's Ac- 
counts and other records of the University of Cambridge for the 
years 1454-14SS," Pub, 1897. On page 30, 1460-01, we read: 

" Item concessa est gracia Magestro Willelmo pykynham Bacca- 

75 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

days of the foundation of St. Andrews in 1413, and that 
it was what it purported to be. Moreover, the LL.D. 
was a proper synonym for Juris Utriusque Doctor, and 
he had a perfect right to use it. As for the similar 
degree of Cambridge, its original meaning had been 
so tampered with and transformed that it represented 
nothing in particular. This is doubtless the reason why 
it is now regarded as a lesser honor than the D. C. L. 
of Oxford, which, by the way, is the oldest of all the 
degrees, for it was conferred on Vacaiius at Bologna 
about 1150 A. D. At least, so says Rashdall in his 
" Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages." ^ 

lario vtriusque iuris quod cum forma habita oxonie admittatur as 
incipiendum in iure civili vel canonico in hac vniversitate." 

" In like manner tlie privilege was granted to Master William 
Pykynham [Piknam or Pigenham] Bachellor of Laws [LL.B., of 
Oxford,] that he be permitted according to the customary form at 
Oxford to begin his studies in both the civil and the canon law 
in this university." 

This privilege was continued in 14G1, and his graduation, or 
"incorporation," was granted in 14G5, when he took the customary 
degree of LL.D. As he began his studies in both laws at Oxford 
as LL.B. and continued them at Cambridge till he obtained the 
degree of LL.D., it seems pretty clear that LL.D. was understood 
to represent J. U.D., or Juris Utriusque Doctor. 

1 Professor Clarke, on page 71 of " Cambridge Legal Studies," says: 
"The first instance of the abbreviation or symbol LL.D. is on the 
tombstone of Thomas Eden, who was the Master of Trinity Hall from 
1626 to 1645." 

In addition to the numerous instances to be seen in the Athenaj 
Cantabrigienses above quoted, the professor might have discovered 
over fifty others in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, of which one-half at 
least date from the sixteenth century, and all signifying "Doctor of 
both Laws." 

On page 72 ibid, we read " It [LL.D.] is regularly used by Dr. 
Richardson, Master of Emmanuel from 1736 to 1775, in his Register 
of Cambridge Degrees, preserved in the University Registry. There, 
the headings LL.B., etc., run from the top of the first whole column 
after 15.35, instead of the previous. y»s cnnonlcum etjus civile." 

This last paragraph is of no special significance, as LL.D. was con- 
ferred by Cambridge as long ago as the fourteenth century, and the 

76 



JOHNSON'S DEGREE 

Boswell, however, plainly thought LL.D. ^ycr se supe- 
rior to any other, and in the rapacity of liis devotion 
to Dr. Johnson, nothing could prevent hira from em- 
bellishing his friend with that adornment, to which 
he had no claim from any point of view, as he had 
received only the usual Oxford D. C. L., though it cer- 
tainly seemed inconsistent, to say the least, to appoint 
as a teacher of the Civil Law a man who was the most 
uncivil Caliban ever created, while denying the office of 
teacher of the Canon Law to one who worshipped every 
form of ecclesiastical supremacy, and whose bow to an 
archbishop was " such a studied elaboration of homage, 
such an extension of limb and such a flexion of body as 
have seldom or never been equalled." 

The whole affair of Dr. Johnson's degree in 1775 was 
simply a political job, engineered by Lord North, and it 
would have been far more to the credit of the great 
moralist, now " the best-known dead man alive," if he 
had disdained it altogether, like Pope, who says in a 
letter to Warburton, " Call me any title you please but 
a Doctor of Oxford." 

The LL.D. given by Hars'^ard and by Yale is simply 
"Legum Doctor," and means notliing but the honor 
included in its presentation. 

The only degree of J.U.D. now conferred comes 
from Heidelberg and from Palermo. The latter signi- 
fies little or nothing. The former is granted only to 
students in law after due examination, and ranks with 

reason why Dr. Richardson entered the degree thus in his Register 
was simply from a wish not to change the customary form that had 
80 long prevailed. Professor Clark does not say that the Registry 
itself dated back farther than Dr. Ricliardson s own day. 

In the "Graduati Cantabrigienses," 1884, it is stated that Cam- 
bridge has always given its LL.D. since the year 1335, the first in- 
stance being that of Ilenricxis Herewarden, the Chancellor for that 
year. 

77 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the LL.B. from the Law School of Harvard and other 
Universities. 

The whole question, when narrowed down to a final 
and practical issue, rests on a purely fictitious basis. 
The degrees of D.C.L. and LL.D. are now but shadows 
of the past, and it is only as such that they bear even 
a relative value, or in fact any value at all. They 
are barren honors, representing the dry bones of what 
was once a living body with a genuine and active 
influence. Even the LL.D. that is granted at our own 
universities as the equivalent of Legum Doctor, or 
Teacher of Laws, is not given for proficienoy in the 
study of any form of law. The whole matter is as 
much a bequest of antiquity as the mummy of a 
Pharaoh, that now, a black and slirunken distortion of 
dead tissue, confronts the present with irrelevant sug- 
gestion and serves merely to recall ages now past to 
which we have no resemblance either in thought, word, 
or deed. 

There is much to be found on this subject in the four- 
teenth lecture of Dr. Stubbs, Bishop of Chester, in his 
work entitled " Seventeen Lectures on the Study of 
Mediaeval and Modern History," though some of the 
author's conclusions seem hardly warranted by the facts 
he adduces. 

Apropos of this subject, it may not be without interest 
to call attention to the fact that there is one solitary 
D.C.L. among the twenty-five thousand saints so 
carefully beaded off by the pious Guizot from the 
" Acta Sanctorum " of tlie Bollandist Fathers. He was 
not only a D.C.L., but a lawyer "in jure civile in- 
structus," and the only lawyer among those numerous 
devotees of " the elect Lady " so fervently praised by 
Renan in his "Vie des Saints," — "that incomparable 
array of the heroes and heroines of a self-denpng life. 



SAINT YVO OF BRITTANY 

Quelle cair de haute distinction ! quelle noblesse I quelle 
podsie ! " 

This was Saint Yvo, of Brittan}-, where saints ever 
were, and still are, as abundant as the seed of Abraham. 
Not less than seventy huge pages of the Acta Sanctorum 
with numerous notes, comments, and other addenda, 
were thought necessary to chronicle his miracles and 
his worthy deeds. He was evidently regarded as the 
Bayard of his profession, for he not only used to plead 
the cause of the poor, the widow and the orphan, " pro 
Christi amore," without a fee, but the Fathers describe 
him as "of good disposition, of assiduous devotion, and 
of a pure and honorable life." It was thus that he 
secured a distinction which had never before been 
awarded to any member of his profession except Saint 
Moses, the greatest of his predecessors; nor was it 
granted to any of his contemporaries in the other branch 
of his profession, though the canon lawyers, as we learn 
from Mr. Rashdall, were ambitious, conservative, and 
dominant to the last degree, and gradually " transformed 
the sacerdotal liierarchy into a hierarchy of lawyers." 

It is quite plain that Saint Yvo stood like a beacon of 
pure and holy light high above the others of his calling, 
and his beneficent career must have helped to conceal, 
and perhaps to cancel, a multitude of their sins, for on 
his fete-day, the 29th of May, we read that the grateful 
celebrants were wont to chant his praises thus : — 

" Advocatus et non latro, 
Res miranda populo," — 
" A lawyer and not a robber ; marvellous to the people." ^ 

^ Ho-w much nobler is the profession in our own age! As Sauer- 
teig saj's, "Who are lawyers? Servants of God, appointed revealers 
of the oracles of God, who read off to us from day to day what is the 
eternal commandment in reference to the mutual claims of His 
creatures in this world." — Lcdter-day Pamphlets, No. 8. 

79 



Part III 

Oxford in 1762. — Oxford Degrees. — Dr. Johnson at Oxford. — 
Lord North and Gibbon. — Records at Oxford. — Franklin's 
D. C. L. — Ills Treatment by the University Authorities. — Frank- 
lin's " Historical Review." — Style of the Work. — Presented by 
Franklin to Dr. Birch. — Gibbon and his Attitude toward Frank- 
lin. — His Capacity for Sitting. — Gibbon and the Colonists. — 
Franklin and Truth. — Adams and Franklin. — Untruthfulness 
as treated in the Old Testament. — Franklin's Liberality in 
Religious Matters. — Louisbourg taken by Prayer. — Franklin's 
Management of the Liquor Question. — Polly Baker. — The 
" Gentleman's Magazine " gives her a AVarm Reception. — Spu- 
rious Letter of William Smith. — Polly Baker and the Abbe Ray- 
nal. — Search for the Birth-place of Polly. 

In 1762, when Franklin received his D.C.L., Oxford 
was at the very lowest abyss of its degradation, — a very 
sink of infidelity, corruption, anarchy, treason, igno- 
rance, and wickedness, in which young men wallowed 
on their way to mental and physical ruin. There were 
but 780^ undergraduates on the books of the twenty 

1 This statement is based on a careful and laborious examination 
of the lists in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, from which it appears that 
191 students matriculated in 1759; 191 in 1760; 208 in 1761; and 190 
in 1762. 

In 1762 Oxford had an average of about ten for each class in each 
college, while Harvard had 148 students, or 39 for each class. Each 
Oxford college was at least ten times richer than Harvard. 

Pope in the " Dunciad " (Book 4, v. 115-118) decidedly underesti- 
mates the number of students at Oxford in his day; i. e. in 1743. 

*' But (happy for him as the times went then), 
Appeared Apollo's May'r and Aldermen, 
On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await 
To lug the pond'rous volumes off in state." (See p. 83.) 

Gibbon calls the months he spent at Oxford " the most idle and 
unprofitable of my whole life," and refers in no commendatory 

80 



OXFORD'S LICENTIOUSNESS 

colleges, au average of only 39 each; and as these col- 
leges were for the most part richly endowed, the few 
connected with them lived in boundless luxury, "steeped 
in ignorance and port," and, from the dons to the 
students, had no scruples in squandering their revenues 
in idleness and extravagance. The university had 
reached the very nadir of abysmal decadence, and was 
not merely a negative influence for good, but an active 
incentive to the bad. Living on its past reputation, 
"the inheritor of unfulfilled renown," one saw on every 
hand the signs of miserable decay and intellectual 
torpor. It was the nucleus of a wide-spreading, perni- 
cious, and deadly blight, and as an educational medium 
was worse than useless. Instruction was a perfunctory 
farce, and the attention which should have been paid to 
Greek and Latin was lavished upon horses, dogs, gam- 
bling, and loose women, while wasteful topers fuddled 
their brains with long nocturnal revels. Books were 
not only neglected, but regarded as simply repulsive, 
and the ample, richly endowed halls of the Bodleian ^ 
were as empty and deserted as those of Karnak or of 
the Astor Library. Over the entrance to each college 
might well have been engraved in letters of lurid light 
that burning line from the Inferno, — 

" Per me si va nel eterno dolore." 



language to " the fellows, or monks of my time," and their " supine 
enjoyment of the gifts of the founder." 

^ As to the Bodleian, " Many days passed without there being a 
single reader there, and it v>as rare for more than two books to be con- 
sulted in a day." This is from a " History of Oxford," by Hon. G. C. 
Broderick, D. C. L., in 18S0. The writer is professedly an apologist 
for the university, and seeks to extort the best case he can from amass 
or invincible facts, but even he admits that it was *' degenerate and 
far inferior to Cambridge," while it "produced few great scholars 
and fewer great teachers." 

6 81 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

A degree from such a source was simply a brand 
from the devil's workshop, stamped red-hot into the 
deluded recipients, who had to pay handsomely for the 
(dis)honor. No wonder tliat neither Franklin nor 
Johnson ever took any pride in this dubious notoriety, 
but treated it with silent neglect. 

In those days Oxford's D.C.L. was almost invariably 
voted for political or social reasons to persons who had 
a " pull " on the authorities, or from whom a quid yro 
quo could reasonably be expected. Rarely, if ever, was 
it bestowed for any form of intellectual achievement; 
never for scientific distinction, except in the case of 
Franklin, that which makes it all the more marvellous. 
Moreover, in spite of the wealth of the university, 
there was a decided flavor of pecuniary greed in the 
management of the affair, as a fee of ten guineas, ten 
omnipotent guineas, was demanded of every recipient, 
except in the very rare instances, as in that of Dr. 
Johnson, where the degree was granted "by diploma." 
This rather discreditable imposition was in decided con- 
trast with the liberality of the sister university to 
Franklin. As Oxford distributed 813 D.C.L.'s during 
the eighteenth century, the income from this source 
amounted to quite a perceptible plum ; especially in an 
age when money represented full ten times what it does 
now, and exposed it to the charge of " growing rich by 
degrees " with far more truth than St. Andrews, to 
which Dr. Johnson applied his well-kno-svn quip.^ 

1 In the course of the eighteenth century Oxford tendered its D.C.L. 
to 205 Members of Parliament solely because of their oflBcial position 
as Tories or Jacobites ; or because some of them were the sons of 
noblemen. These figures are also carefully extracted from Foster's 
Alumni Oxonicnses, 

Mr. Cox says, in his interesting "Memoirs of Oxford " p. 156, " Mr. 
Canning's handsome features and fine head took rather a glum ex- 
pression at having to fork out the sum of ten guineas," and adds, 

82 



OXFORD'S OMISSIONS 

In the eighteenth century the degree that Oxford 
conferred upon Franklin was never conferred by her 
upon his friends, Hume, Adam Smith, ^ — "the greatest 
thinker that Scotland has produced," — or Robertson; 
upon Chatham, Pitt, or Fox ; upon Burke or Sheridan : 
upon Pope or Warburton;^ upon Drj-den, Gray, or 
Cowper; upon Addison or Steele ; upon Gainsborough, 
Romney, or Flaxman ; upon Hogarth or Constable ; upon 
Goldsmith or Prior; upon Parr or Paley ; upon Gibbon, ^ 
Bentley, or Sir William Jones, — " one of the most 
enlightened of the sons of men ; " upon Wilberforce 
or Howard; upon Herschel or Jenner; upon Watts or 
Arkwright; upon Roubiliac or Nollekens; upon Mans- 
field or Ellenborough ; upon Thurlow or Erskine ; upon 
Marlborough, the victor of Blenheim; upon Wolfe, the 
conqueror of Quebec ; upon Lord Heathfield, the heroic 
defender of Gibraltar; upon Hastings or Cornwallis, 
those stars of India; upon Admiral Vernon, though he 

" the recipients of the honor often made wry faces at heing called 
upon to pay solid money." Ccla va sans dire. 

1 Smith was the chief rival of Gibbon in the domain of learning, 
and the masterpiece of each was first presented to the world in the 
same year, 1776, our own annus tnirahilis. While the famous his- 
torian was chronicling the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a 
far greater one than that of the Ca3sars was rising and expanding 
under his very eyes, and yet he saw it not. "His eyes were open, 
but their sense was shut." 

2 As to Pope and Warburton, the Oxford authorities builded 
worse than they knew, for they were subsequently pilloried by the 
former in the " Dunciad " as " Apollo's Mayor and Aldermen," as be- 
fore stated, while the latter took occasion to style the university " a 
nursery of bigotry, intolerance, persecution, and disloyalty." "xind 
thus," as Feste, the clown, said, " the whirligig of time brings in his 
revenges." 

^ " Edward Gibbon was once a member of Magdalen College, 
Oxford, to which he owed, as he says, no obligation; but which her- 
self shamefully and wantonly neglected the greatest literary genius 
who ever graced her registers." — Fkedebic Hakeison, at the 
Gibbon Centenary, 1894. 

83 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

saved untold millions to his country by the invention of 
grog; upon Rodney/ who was hardly surpassed by 
Nelson in bravery, decision, and confident boldness, and 
was his superior in practical skill ; upon How, Duncan, 
Collingwood, Keppel, or Anson ; or upon any of those 
ocean monarchs who in their prime spread the fame of 
England and extended her empire wherever a breeze 
could unfurl her flag or a billow bear her battle-ships. 

So far as these illustrious names are concerned, — 
names 

" Whose transmitted affluence cannot die. 
So long as fire outlives the parent spark," — 

the annals of Oxford are a blank ; and the possessors of 
these names, and a thousand others who fought and 
bled, or even died, that their country and Oxford itself 
could live, might have been sunk "deeper than ever 
plummet sounded " for all the interest that Vv^as felt by 
an institution whose proudest ambition should have 
been to identify herself with their renown and to seek 
to grow all the greater by the invigoration of their 
example. 2 

How much nobler and more creditable has always 
been the policy of the University of Edinburgh in the 
bestowal of its honors ! In the University Calendar for 

1 "Wo also ioTvillc dc Paris, the Leviathan of ships! English 
Eodney has clutched it, and led it home, ■with the rest; so successful 
was his new manoeuvre of breaking the enemy's line." — Cakia'Le, 
French Revolution, Book II., chap. v. 

" There was one exception to this wholesale repudiation of all the 
sources of England's greatness. The authorities of Oxford did con- 
trive to offer their D.C.L. to Clive, professedly on the ground that 
he was a " heaven-born general," though the Lord only knows how 
they could have found that out. It was really done, however, 
because he was a nabob of boundless wealth and a Tory of high de- 
gree, who had just made his way into Parliament at an expense of 
£10,000 — and whose vote was consequently well worth securing. 

84 



THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 

1880, p. 14G, one reads; "The Degree of Doctor of 
Laws is conferred honoris causa tantum." It was first 
granted in 1695. Previously to 1751, it had been con- 
ferred on only seven persons. Since then about one 
hundred and thirty names, including some of the most 
distinguished in Europe, have been added to the 
Register of Doctors of Law in the University. 

Contrast these with the thousands of unseemly and 
unworthy degrees tendered by Oxford to empty-headed 
German princelings, to venial M.P.'s, to royal syco- 
phants, and to every other embodiment of ignorance, 
imbecility, vice, and shameful pretension.^ From 1695 
to 1751 the University of Edinburgh had given only 
seven degrees, while Oxford had issued during that 
period nearly 400. Up to the year 1880, Edinburgh 
had given only 130, and these worthily, while Oxford 
had conferred over 1200, the majority of her honors 
having been wasted on ignoble persons and for ignoble 

1 Churchill in " The Ghost " flings a bitter sarcasm at the Oxford 
degrees, 

"which Balaam's ass, 
As well as Balaam's self might pass, 
And with his master take degrees, 
Could he contrive to pay the fees." — Book 4, v. 103. 

The ignorance of some of the "candidates for honors," so called, 
seems incredible, as it is still revealed by scores of pages of torn and 
mildewed records. Even those in divinity seem to have been no 
more intelligent than the rest. 

" Examiner. 'Thou art the man.' By whom was this said and 
under what circumstances ? 

" Ans. By Christ to the woman of Samaria. 

^^ Examiner. Are you familiar with the French language? 

^^ Ans. To a certain extent. 

^'■Examiner. What is the meaning of ' Les deux Marie' ? 

" Ans. The two husbands. 

" Examiner. Who do you conclude they were? 

"^n5. Joseph and the Holy Ghost." 

These two random examples out of many will suffice to show the 
stuff of which the clergy were made in the eighteenth centiu-y. 

85 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

objects. Since the beginning of the present century, 
however, there has been a great change in this respect, 
and Oxford at her annual Commemorations gradually 
came to dignify herself and glorify England Ijy appear- 
ing as the central sun of a constellation of brilliant and 
illustrious stars. 

Mark Pattison, in his "Memoirs," says that Newman 
told him that this period " was about the worst time in 
the University. A head of Oriel was then continually 
obliged to be assisted to bed by his butler. ' Gaudies ' 
were a scene of wild license. The object of men seems 
to have been to get over time. At Christ Church they 
dined at 3 and sat regularly till chapel at 9." At that 
hour it would seem that their devotions must have been 
singularly unacceptable to any deity but Bacchus or 
Circe. Said Johnson to Boswell, "Sir, it is a great 
thing to dine with the canons," and so it must have 
been.^ 

Mr. J. R. Thorold Rogers, in his edition of "The 
Wealth of Nations," vol. ii. p. 346, when referring to 
Adam Smith's residence at Oxford from 1740 to 1746, 
says, " The condition of Oxford during those six years 
in which Adam Smith resided at Balliol College was 
lower than at any period of its history. . . . The Uni- 
versity swarmed with profligates, was q, nest of noisy 
Jacobites, and was at the meanest literary ebb." In his 
magnum opus. Smith himself devotes a chapter — the 
result of his own observation and experience — to the 
mismanagement and corruption of the great University. 



1 Oddly enough, these canonical dinners, according to Colonel Hig- 
ginson, seem to have been duplicated at the White House during 
the administration of Jefferson, for he was often wont to eat, drink, 
and carouse from four p. m. till midnight with his conglomeration 
of political adherents, who probably thought it a great thing to dine 
with the President, and so it was. 



THE IDLER AT OXFORD 

This may have had something to do with the neglect of 
its officers to vote him a degree. In Dr. Johnson's 
high-toned, moral magazine, "The Idler," appeared, on 
Dec. 2, 1758, a paper purporting to he "The Journal 
of a Senior Fellow " of Cambridge. It was published 
anonymously, though it really came from the pen of 
Thomas Warton, at that time a Fellow of Trinity Col- 
lege, Oxford, and must have been the result of his own 
experiences and observations there, which he naturally 
did not like to chronicle as coming from Oxford, since 
the writer would have been recognized. A few samples 
of the life of a Fellow as thus portrayed are here given. 

"Monday, 11 o'clock, A.M. To remove the five-year 
old port into the new bin on the left hand. . . . 

"7 P.M. Made a tiff of warm punch and to bed at 
9 

" Tuesday, 9 A.M. Rose squeamish. . . . 

"10 A.M. Ordered my horse and rode to the five-mile 
stone on the Newmarket road. Appetite gets better. . . . 

" 12. Drest. Bespoke a new wig. . . . 

"1. At dinner in the hall. Too much water in the 
soup. Dr. Dry orders the beef to be salted too much for 
me. . . . 

"2 P.M. In the common-room, Dr. Dry gave us an 
instance of a gentleman who kept the gout of his stomach 
by drinking old Madeira. . . . Dr. Dry and myself played 
at backgammon for a brace of snipes. Won. . . . 

" 5 P.M. At the coffee-house. 

" 7. Supped on the snipes with Dr. Dry. . . . 

" 8. Dr. Dry told several stories. Were very merry. 

Our new fellow pretends he will bring the youngest Miss 

to drink tea with me soon. . . . 

" 12. Cook made us wait 36 minutes beyond time." . . . 

These will suffice to give an inkling as to the tone of 
the essay and of the life at Oxford. In view of this 

87 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

prelude the reader is somewhat startled by the conclu- 
sion, which states, apparently with all sobriety, that 
" our colleges arc superior to all other places of educa- 
tion. Their instructions, although somewhat fallen 
from their primeval simplicity, are such as influence in 
a particular manner the moral conduct of their youth ; 
and in this general depravity of manners and laxity of 
principles, pure religion is nowhere more strongly in- 
culcated. . . . English universities render their students 
virtuous, at least by excluding all opportunities of vice, 
and, by teaching them the principles of the Church of 
England, confirm them in those of Christianity." 

The above article must have been published by Dr. 
Johnson in his magazine from pure friendship for the 
writer, and he doubtless added the remarkable and 
contradictory conclusion from loyalty to his Alma 
Mater. His devotion to her was unswerving and could 
stand any number of obtrusive and vexatious facts 
without wincing or blushing. In truth, if you come to 
that, all the graduates of Oxford were tarred with the 
same brush and would say or do anything in her behalf. 
Dr. Johnson, in his heart of hearts, was really proud of 
his enormous capacity for the pleasures of the table, 
and, like Lord Stowell, the only exercise he ever took 
was eating and drinking. Both of them could drink 
any give7i quantity of wine, though they seldom gave it 
to others. In the doctor's " Prayers and Meditations " 
we notice: "1782, March 17, Sunday, I read a Greek 
chapter, prayed with Francis Qiis valet], and explained 
to him the Lord's Prayer. I made punch for myself 
and my servants, by which, in the night, I thought 
both my heart and imagination disordered." 

The great moralist was ever proud of his achieve- 
ments at Oxford in this line, and the genius loci appears 
to have pervaded his spirit to the last. In 1788 he said 

88 



JOHNSON AND VESTRIS 

to Boswell: "I have drunk three bottles of port at 
Oxford without being the worse for it. University 
College has witnessed this." He always regretted that 
he had not learned to play cards when under the charge 
of his Alma Mater. When the sage had reached his 
seventy-third year, the great Vestris, "le dieu de la 
danse," made his advent in London. Society was agi- 
tated to its remotest bounds. Parliament adjourned to 
see his graceful and agile pirouetting, and the general 
furore developed into a maelstrom. 

" Vestris to see, King, Lords, and Commons run, 
Glad to forget that Britain is undone. 
The Jesuit Shelburne, the apostate Fox, 
And Bulls and Bears together in a box." 

One of the papers started a report that Dr. Johnson 
was to take lessons of this vaulting, whirling, and pas- 
sionate dervish. Lord Charlemont asked the doctor if 
this were true. "Why should not Dr. Johnson add 
to his powers a little corporal agility?" was the reply. 
" Socrates learnt to dance at an advanced age, and Cato 
learnt Greek." 

In this remark he only showed his consistency with 
his views of some years before, when he declared that 
" every man of any education would rather be called a 
rascal than accused of deficiency in the graces." 

The author of " Rasselas " went even farther than this 
and once began to say, "If / kept a seraglio." The 
flippant Boswell laughed aloud, at which the angry sage 
turned upon him and tossed and gored him. Thus his 
views on the subject were forever lost to the world, for 
his plan had doubtless been well thought out from a 
broad ethical and philosophical standpoint ; and the rude 
merriment of his disciple prevented us from knoAving 
how the greatest moralist of his age would have so con- 
scientiously planned a harem that there should be no 

89 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

tinge of impropriety or any encroachment upon the most 
sensitive and fastidious convenances. 

At his installation as Chancellor of Oxford in 1773, 
Lord North distributed no less than fifty-four D.C.L.'s 
among his tools and supporters, chiefly as rewards for 
political jobs, ranging through various degrees of dirt 
and venality. One of these was Thrale, the brewer, 
and M.P. for South wark, whose letters and addresses 
to his constituents were written by his friend. Dr. 
Johnson, since he was not capable of composing them 
himself. As he was a bigoted, thick-and-thin, abject 
Tory, and as the profits of his brewery were at least 
£15,000 per annum in addition to the £20,000 in excise 
duties that he paid to the government, he was naturally 
to be conciliated as one of the elect. In those days all 
preferment or consideration was on a political basis. 

"Votes, votes, votes, the whole government was a 
machine on wheels and votes were the cogs." When 
the father of Lord Clive appeared at a royal levee, 
George III. asked him where his son was. " He will 
be in town very soon," was the reply, "and then your 
Majesty will have another vote." As Hume wrote in 
1765, "If a man have the misfortune in London to 
attach himself to letters, even if he succeeds, I know 
not with whom he is to live, nor how he is to pass his 
time in a suitable society. The little company there 
that is worth conversing with are cold and unsociable, 
or are warmed only by faction and cabal ; so that a man 
who plays no part in public affairs becomes altogether 
insignificant, and if he is not rich, he becomes even 
contemptible." 

Gibbon writes to his step-mother, Feb. 12, 1763: 
"Indeed, madam, we may say what we please of the 
frivolity of the French, but I do assure you that in a 
fortnight past at Paris I have heard more conversation 

90 



LONDON LORDS AND LADIES 

worth remembering and seen more men of letters among 
the people of fashion, than I had done in two or three 
winters in London." 

Mrs. Montagu, "queen of the blue-stocldngs," and 
also soaring seraphic among the shining splendors of the 
haute volee^ says in a letter to her sister, Mrs. Robinson, 
dated Dec. 29, 1779, "Our town amours present us 
with everything that is horrible. Women without 
religion or virtue, and men void even of a sense of 
honor. Never till now did we hear of three divorces 
going forward in one session, in which ladies of the 
most illustrious rank and families in Great Britain are 
concerned." 

This state of affairs was partly — even largely — due 
to the large number of new and insignificant peers 
appointed by George III. for political purposes. His 
whole career was "a reign of expedients," and he was 
obliged to resort to every subterfuge in order to keep 
his tlirone. Lady Townshend, a great social leader, and 
prone to entertain the lions of the day, writes in 1762 : 
"You find few commoners in England. We make 
nobility as fast as people make kings and queens on 
Twelfth Night, and almost as many. I dare not spit 
out of the window for fear of spitting on a lord." No 
wonder that under these circumstances Franklin found 
himself far more at home in Edinburgh. As Gibbon 
wrote to Robertson in 1779 : " I have often considered 
with some sort of envy the valuable society which you 
possess in so narrow a compass." 

Dr. Johnson did not get his degree till 1775, when it 
was conferred in company with divers horsey M. P. 's and 
country squires who could not make out the meaning of 
their diplomas, nor, indeed, spell or write their own 
vernacular correctly. It was bestowed upon the great 
moralist for his "efforts in the cause of relisrion and 

91 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

morality," and coming as it did from such a hot-bed of 
vice and every form of evil-doing, one can hardly see 
how the force of sarcasm could farther go. 

Johnson's gratitude to Lord North for his degree 
seems to have been in proportion to the value he set 
upon it. When the chief and his cabinet came to grief 
in 1782, he wrote in his diary': "January 20. The 
Ministry is dissolved. I prayed with Francis and gave 
thanks." A few days after this he said: "I am glad 
the Ministry is removed. Such a bunch of imbecility 
never disgraced a country." 

Why the University of Oxford conferred its degree 
of D.C.L. upon Franklin will ever remain a mj'stery; 
and all the more that he never mentioned it to any one, 
so far as is known, nor did he once make use of it. 
There seems to have been absolutely no reason Avhatever 
for the granting of the distinction, such as it was, 
while there were many for its refusal. Every aspect 
of public affairs in England was dead against it, and it 
certainly could not have been the result of pressure, 
royal or political, from above, for his attitude was far 
from popular in those directions, and he was not a 
favorite with King, Lords, or Commons. 

It was for centuries the invariable custom to submit 
the name of any candidate for an honorary degree at 
Oxford to the Hebdomadal Board, which was composed 
of the Vice-chancellor, or his deputy, the two Proctors, 
and the Heads of all Colleges and Halls. This was 
abolished in 1855 for an elective body called the 
Hebdomadal Council, somewhat differently constituted. 
("Orationes Creweianae," by Ricardo Mitchell, 1884; 
pages 60 and 98.) 

As might have been expected, the records of Oxford 
during the eighteenth century were managed, like 
everything else, with an utter lack of system and in a 

92 



OXFORD AND ELECTRICITY 

slovenly, defective, perfunctory way that left many a 
vacancy. As to any possible minutes of the Hebdomadal 
Board, I am informed by Mr. T. Vere Baync,^ Keeper 
of the Archives, that there are none j^revious to 1788, 
nor is there any proof that such records were ever kept. 
Hence there is nothing now left in writing to reveal the 
motives that led the authorities to vote the degree, but 
it is probable that the popular impression was voiced in 
the following extract from Jackson's " Oxford Journal," 
A. D. 1762: — 

"Oxford, May 1. Yesterday Benjamin Franklin, Esq., 
Of Pennsylvania, eminent for his many extraordinary dis- 
coveries in Electricity, was presented by this University to 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. 

"At the same time his sou, who has also distinguished 
himself in the same branch of natural knowledge, was pre- 
sented to the honorary degree of Master of Arts." '^ 

This announcement was printed, with three or four 
verbal changes for the worse, in the "New York 
Mercury" for July 12, 1762, which was, apparently, 
the first date of its publication in America. 

As the Oxford professors apparently knew about as 

^ Mr. Bayne writes, " The minutes of the Hehdomadal Board do 
not exist before 1788. At the beginning of the Volume in my charge 
is written by one of my predecessors, ' This is the first Eecord of the 
acts of the Hebdomadal Board.' " 

2 In Parton's "Life of Franklin," vol. i. p. 430, the following 
paragraph appears. 

" Oxford paid him a parting compliment. According to the 
records of that university, it was agreed, nem. con. (February 22, 
1762), at a meeting of the Heads of the Houses, that Mr. Franklin, 
whenever he shall please to visit the university, shall be offered the 
compliment of the degree of D. C. L., Honoris Causa." 

From the above testimony of Mr. Bayne, it seems pretty obvious 
that Mr. Parton's description of the " parting compliment " is purely 
fictitious and must have been " evolved from his own consciousness," 
like the German savant's account of the camel. 

93 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

much concerning electricity as they did in regard to 
religion and morals, and felt an equal interest in each, 
Franklin's degree was obviously as much of a farce as 
Dr. Johnson's. 

There is no reference in the diploma, as will here- 
after be seen, to any electrical or other scientific or 
literary achievements of the beneficiary; on the con- 
trary, so far as cited, the reasons for conferring the 
honor are chiefly or entirely political. 

Though there are no records of the Hebdomadal Board 
available, the "Acta Convocationis, " or Acts of Convo- 
cation, are for the most part relatively available, 
and in the volume labelled "1757-1766 " a minute rela- 
tion in Latin is given of the ceremonies attending the 
reception of Franklin and his son and the conferring 
of their respective degrees. I am able to state with 
authority that the following extracts contain everything 
that is now anywhere to be found on the records of 
Oxford in regard to Franklin's degree : — 

" Convoc. Die ven. Viz. Tricesimo die mensis Aprilis 
April SO, 1762, annoDom. 1762. Causa Convocationis erat 
ut ornatissimus vir Benjaminus Franklin, armiger, Provin- 
ciae Pennsylvaniae Deputatus ad Curiam sereuissimi Regis 
Legatus, Tabellariorum per Americauam Septentrionalem 
Praefectus generalis, et veredariorum totius Novae Angliae 
Praefectus Generalis, necnon Regiae Societatis Socius (si 
ita venerabili coetui placeret), ad Gradum Doctoris in Jure 
Civili, et Gulielmus Franklin armiger Juris municipalis 
consultus ad Gradum magistri in artibus admitterentur, 
necnon ut literae ab Honoratissimo Cancellario ad Sena- 
tum datae legerentur et ut alia negotia academica per- 
agerentur. 

"Causa convocationis sic indicta proponente sigillatim 
Domino Vice Cancellario placuit venerabili coetui ut prae- 
dictus ornatissimus vir Benjaminus Franklin armigey ad 

94 



THE CONVOCATION 

Gradiim Doctoris in Jure Civili et ornatissimus vir Guliel- 
mus Franklin armiger ad gradum magistri in artibus 
admitterentur. 

"Spectatissimunx virum Benjaminura Franklin armigerum, 
praeeuntibus Bedellis, in domum convocatiouis ingressum 
dextraque prehensum, Diis Gulielmus Seward, Collegii Divi 
Joannis Baptistae Socius, sub eleganti orationis Formula 
Dno Vice Cancellario et Procurationibus praesentabat ut 
ad Gradum Doctoris in Jure Civili Honoris Causa admit- 
teretur. Quemque hoc modo praesentatum DiTus Vice 
Cancellarius sua et totius universitatis autlioritate ad dictum 
Gradum Honoris Causa solemniter admisit. 

" Ornatissimum juvenum Gulielmum Franklin armigerum 
a Thomae Nowell, M. A. Collegii Orielensis socio et publico 
oratore, similiter praesentatum, Diins Vice Cancellarius ad 
Gradum Magistri in Artibus similiter admisit." 

The cause of the Convocation held on Friday, April 
30, 1762, was that the most distinguished man, Benja- 
min Franklin, Esquire, Legate of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania to the Court of the Most Serene King, Deputy 
Postmaster-General for North America and of the postal 
service for all New England, Fellow of the Royal 
Societ}', should (if it so please the worshipful assembly) 
be admitted to the degree of Doctor in Civil Law, and 
that William Franklin, learned in municipal law, 
should be admitted to the degree of Master in Arts ; also, 
that letters from the most Honorable Chancellor to the 
Senate should be read, and other academical business 
be transacted. 

The cause of the Convocation having been announced 
and the name of each having been separately declared 
by the Lord Vice-Chancellor, it pleased the worshipful 
assembly tliat the aforesaid most distinguished man, 
Benjamin Franklin, Esq., should be admitted to the 
degree of Doctor in Civil Law, and that the most dis- 

95 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

tinguished man, William Franklin, should be admitted 
to the degree of Master in Arts. 

The most eminent man, Benjamin Franklin, Esq., 
preceded by the beadle, having entered the hall of the 
Convocation and been taken by the right hand, was 
presented by Dominus ^ "William Seward, Fellow of the 
College of the Divine John the Baptist, after the deliv- 
ery of an elegantly turned speech, to the Lord Vice- 
Chancellor and to the Heads of Colleges, that he might 
be admitted to the degree in Civil Law Honoris Causa. 
Whom, thus presented, the Lord Vice-Chancellor, by 
his own authority and that of the whole university, 
admitted to said degree Honoris Causa. 

The most distinguished of young men, William 
Franklin, Esq., having been presented in a similar 
manner by Thomas Nowell, M. A., Fellow of Oriel 
College and Public Orator, was admitted by the Lord 
Vice-Chancellor in a similar manner to the degree of 
Master in Arts. 

During the first half of the eighteenth century, and 
for some years later, the degrees granted by Oxford were 
not conferred at the annual Commemoration, but at cer- 
tain Convocations, so called, which were held at stated 
periods for that purpose by the heads of the various 
houses. In the year 1762, the archives of the Univer- 
sity, copies of which I have in my possession, show that 

1 This word, with which the archives of many, if not all, institu- 
tions of great antiquity are profusely freckled, is hardly translatable 
here. It seems to have been largely employed for decorative pur- 
poses where no other embellishment was exactly appropriate, as 
Esquire is now. Du Cange gives no less than thirty-one definitions of 
"Dominus," from the title of God and the various saints down to 
" Dominus vini," or Lord of the wine, that very important officer in 
every monastery and very essential to its success. While perusing 
ancient records, one is often reminded of the Scriptiu-e verse: " And 
the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thou- 
sands." 

96 



VARIOUS HONORS 

line pereons received the degree of D.C.L., all "honoris 
;ausa." These were the Kev. Richard Burne on the 
^2d of March ; Benjamin Heath, town-clerk of Exeter, 
)n the 31st; and Benjamin Franklin on the 30th of 
ipril; Alexander Thistlethwaite on the 13th of Sep- 
;eml)er; Ernest Gottlieb Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg, 
md two Barons Dewitz, of his suite, on the 27th of Sep- 
;ember; and Sir Fletcher Norton, Solicitor-General, on 
:he 20th of October. 

In addition to these, on the same 27th of September, 
t was voted that a degree "per diploma" should be 
ent to the Earl of Litchlield, " Ilonoratissimus Dominus 
3ominus," conferring upon him the degree of D.C.L. 
md also informing him of his election as Chancellor, 
riie two last named were men of talent and distinction 
md well deserved the honors they received, but the 
jrennans had little claim besides their rank, while 
VIessrs. Burne and Thistlethwaite enjoyed neither emi- 
lence nor ability, and no more merited their degrees 
han thousands of others of similar mediocrity. The 
ormer was simply Vicar of Orton and the latter M.P. 
'or Hants. 

All the candidates, with the exception of Franklin 
ind his son, were duly presented to the Vice-Chancellor 
md the Heads of the Colleges, with the customary 
lonors, by Thomas Bever, D.C.L., "omnium animorum 
locius," or Fellow of All Souls, who seems to have been 
)eculiarly fitted for this office, as he was often assigned 
io it. He was a gentleman of rare cultivation, taste, 
md learning ; a lecturer on jurisprudence, Chancellor of 
L<incoln and Bangor, and devoted to music and the fine 
irts. Oddly enough, but doubtless not without a 
notive, the escort deputed to attend upon Franklin in 
lis gown of pink and scarlet, had far less claim to con- 
sideration. He was merely Rev. William Seward, vicar 
7 97 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

of Charlbury, one of the Oxford livings, and though a 
D.C.L. of 1753 and labelled " Dominus " on the archives, 
lie appears to have been only that and nothing more. 
The greatest honor of all in this connection was paid to 
William Franklin, who was attended by the llev. 
Thomas Nowell, I\I.A., who happened to be of the same 
age as himself, and was one of the chief dignitaries of 
the University. He was Secretary to the Chancellor, 
Treasurer and Dean of Oriel College, Principal of St. 
Mary's Hall, and for the last thirty years of his life 
Regius Professor of IModern History. He was also 
Public Orator from 17G0 to 1T7G, an office of peculiar 
dignity and importance. ^ 

As all ceremonies of that nature are planned with a 
nice observance of precedent and an intention to " render 
to all their dues . . . honour to whom honour," it is 
very plain that in this instance the Oxford dons did not 

^ " The Public Orators have always been chosen by the v»-hole 
electoral body of the University in convocation, and on several oc- 
casions the contest has been very animated. The duty of the 
Orators, as now settled by statute and by long usage, is to represent 
the University on state occasions, when an address is made by way 
of speech to a royal, or other distinguished person. . . . Secondly, 
he is required to write and submit to the Vice-Chancellor all letters 
formally written in the name of the University. Thirdly, he delivers, i 
alternately with the Professor of Poetry, the Creweian Oration, 
Fourthly, he is, ex ojficio, one of the persons to adjudge the Xewdi- 
gate and several other prizes for composition. And, fifthly, he 
presents for their honorary degree those persons upon whom the \ 
University confers this honour." —Page 1 GG of " Orationes Crewei- ; 
anae, a Kicardo Michell, S. T. P." 1S84. I 

From this it is very obvious that the Public Orator must always ) 
have been possessed of rare scholarly attainments, gentlemanly bear- 
ing, an eloquent pen, and various other claims to distinction, and it 
is also obvious that the Oxford authorities in requesting the Public ) 
Orator to wait upon William Franklin instead of upon his father, 
chose to administer to the latter a very decided and expressive indig- \ 
nity, and would not even allow him the secondary honor of being ( 
escorted to the august presence of the Vice-Chancellor by Thomas | 
Bever, D.C.L. 

98 



FRANKLIN'S STATUS 

propose to do any more honor to Franklin than they 
were obliged to, and that the extraordinary reversal of 
the natural and proper claims of father and son was not 
the result of accident, but was undoubtedly arranged 
beforehand with malice prepense, — conduct all the more 
emphasized by the fact that William Franklin was really 
only his father's appendix and was generally supposed 
to have been awarded his degree of M.A. merely from 
regard to him. 

These facts also must have had their share in Frank- 
lin's subsequent attitude towards his Oxford degree and 
that silent disdain of which I have before spoken.^ 

The mutual interest and respect of the liberal and 

I learned Franklin and the Fellow of the Divine St. John 

the Baptist, who presented him to the Vice-Chancellor 

and his associates, must have been as scanty as the 

sympathies of William Franklin and his voucher were 

abundant. No record can be found of the "elegans 

oratio " in which Franklin's peculiar claims to distinc- 

ition were set forth, but it is safe to infer that it was 

very short, very heavy, and composed chiefly of per- 

.functory and non-committal generalities. The College 

I of St. John's was at that date the centre of political 

' discontent and was thoroughly saturated with the abject 

loyalty of centuries of royal servitude and Jacobite 

i 1 In the Public Library of Boston is a copy of Franklin's " Politi- 
-cal, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces," published in 1779, 
under the editorship of his intimate friend, Benjamin Vaughan. It 
^ has Franklin's autograph and evidently once belonged to him. This 
- is said to have been the only collection of his works that he helped 
: to prepare or in which he took a personal interest. On the titlepage 
' Franklin's name as the author is followed by the usual " LL.D. and 
f F.R.S." and also by a list of his offices, the various societies of 
■ ■which he was a member, and other details. There is no sign of his 
; degree of D.C.L., and under the peculiar circumstances there is 
'every reason to infer that it was omitted intentionally and at Frank- 
lin's request. 

99 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

toiyism, and the Rev. William Seward was a typical 
representative thereof. 

In August, 1762, about four months and a half after 
Franklin had been at Oxford for the purpose of receiv- 
ing his degree, he acknowledged the courtesy, as he 
had done in the case of his St. Andrews degree, by 
sending to the Bodleian Library a book entitled "An 
Historical Review of the Constitution and Govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania, London, 1759." Whatever may 
have been its original state, this volume is now hand- 
somely bound in gilt-tooled blue morocco, with these 
words written by John Price, the sub-librarian, on a 
fly-leaf: "Rec'd Aug*. 9th, 1762, and entered." The 
fact of the presentation is confirmed by this extract from 
"Register C. ": "Donations to the Library in the year 
ending 8 Nov. 1762.^ 

"An Historical Review of y® Governm*, iS:c. of Penn- 
sylvania by Mr. Francklin, F.R.S., now LL.D., from 
y« Author." 

^ In 1762, the Bodleian Library did not own a copy of any work 
that had been written by Franklin, nor did it obtain one, except 
that which he presented, till 1770, when it was enriched by a legacy 
from Eev. Charles Godwyu. Among the pamphlets thus bequeathed 
were two copies of " The Interest of Great Britain considered," one 
of the edition of 1700, and the other of that of 1701. These were 
promptly entombed with the rest of the legacy and so remained, un- 
catalogued and unknown, till the year 1810. The Principal Librarian 
at that time was Eev. Humphrey Owen, who was incompetent and 
negligent. Being a pluralist Mith various parishes to look after, he 
left the library in charge of John Trice, aforesaid, who ran it pretty 
much as as he pleased and succeeded in running it into the ground. 
It is thus apparent that if it had not been for Franklin's gift he 
would not have been represented on the shelves of the Bodleian dur- 
ing his lifetime. 

In 1700, the number of volumes in the Bodleian was about 60,000, 
which though seemingly small, actually gave to it an exalted rank 
at a period when libraries were few, and such as there were had far 
less ample resources than now. At present, the Bodleian has on its 
shelves over half a million of printed books alone. 

100 



"AN HISTORICAL EEVIEW" 

The book contains no contemporary writing by Frank- 
lin, or by any other person, tending to show that he gave 
it or was the author thereof, but the words " from y® 
Author," above quoted, form another strong link in 
the chain of evidence tending to prove conclusively 
that he was its writer, notwithstanding his peremptory 
denial in the well-known letter to Hume, dated Sept. 
27, 1760.1 

That Franklin was the author and the writer of this 
work, no one who is at all familiar with its contents can 
for a moment doubt. ^ Every feature points to him as its 
source. The clear and incisive style; the marvellous 
command of facts and the perfect grasp of the whole 
subject in all its details; the eloquent and vigorous 
presentment of the argument, "full of force urged 
home ; " the shrev/d and sagacious insight into the 
future; the keen exposure of the arbitrary and sense- 
less conduct of the Proprietaries ever since the rule of 
Penn himself; the numerous maxims of political wis- 
dom, nuggets of condensed experience, that were the 
harvest of many years of observation and could have 
flowed from no other pen, — these are all the very ear- 
marks of Franklin's issue and the lineaments of his 
literary offspring wherever they appeared, even though 

1 *' Hume was vain, a moral coward, and indifferent to strict tnith." 
So says Dr. G. B. Hill in his edition of Hume's Letters to Strahan. 
Possibly a sense of this feature in his character may have tended to 
make Franklin less careful about telling a falsehood himself, when 
writing to Hume. 

^ The "Historical Eeview " must have crossed the Atlantic very 
soon after its publication in April, as it was already advertised in the 
" Boston Gazette and County Journal," for Sept. 22, 1760, Mecom 
having got out a reprint of it. '* (Price 8 f. L. M.) [Ascrib'd to Mr. 
F.] " This was very enterprising indeed for that period, and Mecom 
would never have involved himself to such an extent if he had not 
received a copy from his uncle with an intimation as to its author- 
ship. 

101 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

he might deny their paternity. And lost, but by no 
means least, one may well refer to the homely and effec- 
tive illustrations which he so often used to wing his 
thoughts and quicken them with a vigorous life, — the 
Scriptural allusions to Moses and his career, so often 
employed by him for the peculiar edification of his 
readers; to the barren fig-tree; to the Pharisees and 
many other well-known examples, — who else was likely 
to fortify his argument with such aids as these, or by 
citing " the flock in the fable who took the wolf for their 
shepherd," of "Mors in olla, or death in the pot," or 
"Change of devils is blithesome"? No one, most 
assuredly, but Franklin, whose active brain was ever 
secreting thought, as the stomach secretes chyle. ^ 

What could be more distinctly Franklinesque than 
the three following extracts? 

Page 5. " Courage, wisdom, integrity, and honor are not 
to be measured by the sphere assigned to them to act in, 
but by the trials they undergo and the vouchers they 
furnish ; and if so manifested, need neither robes nor 
titles to set them off," — a sentiment worthy not only of 
Franklin, but of every man who had the good of his race 
at heart, from Marcus Aurelius to Emerson. 

P. 32. " Men who want a present convenience must not 
be over-solicitous about future contingencies; and in gen- 
eral we choose to be blind to such obstacles as we fear we 
have not strength enough to remove: — He that is too 
much a huckster, often loses a bargain ; as he that is too 
little so, often purchases a lawsuit." 

1 Franklin and Johnson seem to have been of one mind in regard 
to the use of their names on tlie titlepage of their works, for the 
latter almost invariably brought out his anonymously, such as 
"Rasselas," "London," the "Rambler," and others, including 
his political pamphlets. And so did Job, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and 
the great majority of the other writers in the Old Testament. 

102 



THE WORD "PUBLISHER" 

p. 378, " Fatally verified, however, we see both there and 
everywhere else, the fable of the Ax, which, having been 
gratified with as much wood only as would serve for a 
liandle, became immediately the instrument to hew down 
the Porest, root and branch, from whence it was taken." 

Without adducing farther testimony here, I simply 
quote a passage from Franklin's Autobiography, written at 
Passy, in 1784, which seems to go far towards settling 
this question conclusively, and all the more that the word 
"publish" then had a wider meaning than now and was 
often employed to indicate both writing and bringing out a 
work: — 

" After he [Gov. Denny] came to do business with the 
Assembly, the disputes were renewed and I was as active 
as ever in the opposition, being the penman, first of the 
request to have a communication of the instructions, and 
then of the remarks upon them, which may be found in the 
votes of the time and in the * Historical Review,' I after- 
wards published." 

This apparently amounts to a surrender of the whole 
point under discussion, for it admits Franklin's connec- 
tion with the work, and, as he was not certainly the 
publisher in a mercantile sense, he must have been the 
author. 

In regard to the meaning of the word " publisher " at 
that time, I am informed by ]Mr. Henry Bradley, of the 
"New English Dictionary," that "in the eighteenth cen- 
tury it was already common to use ' publish ' in a sense 
implying authorship, — ' the books published by eminent 
-scholars, ' and so forth. I think that the most natural 
interpretation of Franklin's statement for readers of his 
own time, as for those of to-day, would be that it was 
an acknowledgment of the authorship. ... I should 
be inclined to think that he really meant to acknowledge 
the authorship, as he does not mention any one else as 

103 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the actual writer, or say that the ])ook was not written 
by himself."! 

I give herewith a curious and interesting incident 
connected with the work just above described and 
which tends still farther to reveal its paternity. In the 
Library of the British jMuseum is a copy thereof with 
these words, all unmistakably in the hand of Dr. 
Thomas Birch, ^ on a fly-leaf: "Tho. Birch, 16 April, 
1762. Donum Benj. Franklin." I have also, found 
among the "Sloane MSS." in the Museum, "4307 f. 
176.," a letter relating to the above book and in Frank- 
lin's handwriting, with the solitary exception of " April 
16, 1762," by Dr. Birch. 

''Mr. Franklin's compliments to Dr. Birch and returns 
Mr. Delaval's and Mr. Canton's papers. Mr. F. thought he 
had prevailed with each of those Gentlemen to omit or 
change some Expressions that might tend to occasion a 
Dispute, but on further Discourse finds that neither of 

1 An interesting example of the early use of the "word "publish" 
appears in Winthrop's "History of New England" at the time of 
the final climax of "the sow business" in 1643. This extremely 
protracted, complicated, and generally demoralizing affair agitated 
the whole colony for seven years, and threatened the verj' existence 
of the body politic. " It was the magistrates' only care," says the 
historian, " to gain time, that so the people's heat might be abated, 
for then they Icnew they would hear reason, and that the advice of 
the elders might be interposed; and that there might be liberty to 
reply to the answer, which was very long and tedious, which was 
accordingly done after the court and published to good satisfaction." 
In a note to this passage the editor, Mr. James Savage, says, " Pub- 
lishing does not mean printing. The tract, written for circulation 
by "Winthrop, is in our Historical Society's Library and contains 
sixteen pages." In this case AVinthrop evidently thought writing 
the equivalent of publishing, and that the two necessarily went 
together. 

2 " Dr. Birch is one to whom British history stands more indebted 
than to any superior author. He has enriched the British Museum 
by thousands of the most authentic documents of genuine secret 
history.' ' — Diskaeli : Curiosities of Literature. 

104 



FRANKLIN AND DR. BIRCH 

them cordially approves the Alterations propos'd, tho' they 
might consent to them at the instance of their Friends ; so 
the Papers are return'd unaltered and Mr. F. begs pardon 
of Dr. Birch for the trouble his officiousness has given him; 
and suggests his acceptance of a Book herewith sent him. 

"The Paquet was brought by a Friend of Mr. F.'s from 
France. 

"Craven St.. Friday morning." 

The testimony of the similarity of date, in the letter 
and in the book, of the entries by Dr. Birch amounts to 
conclusive proof that the work was the "Historical 
Review." 

After Dr. Birch's death this work passed, with all 
his other books and manuscripts, into the possession of 
the British Museum. Though Franklin in his note 
omits to acknowledge himself as its author, he certainly 
does not attribute it to any one else, as he would have 
done very naturally if he had not written it himself. 
Truth was not a chronic complaint with him, and he 
never committed himself unnecessarily in any direction. 

From the facts above stated, the reader will perceive 
that Franklin, with his usual sense of equity and of the 
fitness of things, contrived to do equal justice to both 
England and Scotland. Like the provident John 
Gilpin, — 

"lie hung a bottle on each side, 
To make his balance true." 

To St. Andrews he gave a book of which he claimed 
to be the author, though he did not write it, while to 
Oxford he gave a work which he had written, though 
he flatl}' denied it. Very likely he had in mind the 
example of the virtuous and conscientious Dido, when 
she proposed to distribute her favors with equal impar- 
tiality between the Trojans and her own subjects, and 
said : — 

105 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

" Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur." 
(Trojan and Tyrian no two wise at hands of me shall fare.) 

William Morris. 

Considering the peculiar intimacy and popularity 
that Franklin enjoyed among the principal writers of 
his age, and especially with Hume/ Adam Smith, 
Robertson, Strahan the publisher, and others, who 
Avere also on the most friendly terms with Gibbon the 
historian, the attitude of the latter towards him is much 
to be regretted. This was based seemingly on political 
grounds, however, and Gibbon never ceased to look 
upon Franklin as a contumacious rebel, incapable of 
reconstruction, and constantly declined to have any 
intercourse with him. Actually, when these two great 
rival writers, legislators, militia colonels, sceptics, 
place-men, and well-matched competitors for the world's 
championship on the field of autobiography ^ met by 
accident at the same dinner-table in Paris in the spring 
of 1777, they did not exchange a word with each other. 

1 In a letter to Strahan, Franklin's oldest and most intimate friend, 
dated January, 1773, Hume speaks of " the Prejudices of a stupid, 
factious nation, with whom I am heartily disgusted." Farther on 
he adds in reference to a possible continuation of his history: "As 
to any Englishman, that nation is so sunk in stupidity and barbarism 
and faction that you may as well think of Lapland for an author. 
The best Book that lias been writ by any Englishman these thirty 
years (for Dr. Franklin is an American) is ' Tristram Shandy,' bad as 
it is. A remark which may astonish you, but which you will find 
true on reflection." 

Thus, by implication, Hume elevates the Boston boy over the 
heads of Gray and Collins, Fielding and Eichardson, Johnson and 
Goldsmith, to say nothing of lesser luminaries that might be men- 
tioned. This was very great praise indeed from such a source, and 
must have been called forth by a genuine sense of merit. 

2 The " Quarterly Review " said of Gibbon's " Memoirs," " It is 
perhaps the best specimen of autobiography in the English language," 
and Dibdin in his "Library Companion" wrote, "It has been, per- 
haps, the most popular production of its kihd in the English language, 
and is, in fact, the consummation of art." 

103 



GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL 

Franklin nowhere refers to this incident, but Gibbon 
mentions it in a letter to his friend, "J. Holroyd, Esq." 
He must have been living at that time in a different 
style from that of his rival, for he speaks of " two foot- 
men in handsome liveries behind my coach and my 
apartment hung with damask." 

It is gratifying to know that signal and well-deserved 
vengeance has finally overtaken the short-sighted and 
intolerant Gibbon for his treatment of Franklin, at 
least, it is so alleged. Mv. Charles Francis Adams, the 
President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has 
lately stated that " in the case of one public library in a 
considerable jNiassachusetts city I have been led to con- 
clude as the result of examination and somewhat careful 
inquiry that the copy of the ' Decline and Fall ' on its 
shelves has, in over thirty years, not once been con- 
secutively read through by a single individual."^ And 
thus again the whirligig of time has brought in his 
revenges. 

Justice, though often slow, is generally sure in the 
end. Fortunately for Gibbon, he did not live to wit- 
ness this humiliation, though he would have derived a 
certain solace from knowing that his name was eternized 
on the granite walls of the Boston Walhalla with those 
of Prescott, Motley, Cotton Mather, Theodore Parker, 
and numerous other deities, both domestic and foreign. 

It will, perchance, tend somewhat to brace up those 

1 Address at the Opening of the Fenway Building of the Massa- 
chusetts nistorical Society, April 13, 1899, Mr. Adams is careful 
not to give tlie name of the library he mentions, but it is, of course, 
the Public Library of Boston, othervrise his illustration would be of 
no significance whatever. Justice, however, compels me to state 
that there is not a set of books in the Boston Library, not even 
Mather's " Magnalia," which are more worn, soiled, and generally 
dilapidated by obviously constant use than Gibbon's "Decline and 
Fall of the Koman Empire." 

107 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Bostonians who may liave felt a twinge of remorse for 
withdrawing their patronage from the once pre-eminent 
Gibbon, to learn the truth about him as revealed to the 
acute perception and appreciative insight of the keen 
and candid Iluskin, who seems to feel towards Gibbon 
the same disposition that he does towards Voltaire. 

" Primarily, none but the malignant and the weak study 
the Decline and Fall either of State or organism. Dis- 
solution and putrescence are alike common and unclean in 
all things ; any wretch or simpleton may observe for him- 
self and experience himself the processes of ruin ; but 
good men study and wise men describe only the growth 
and standing of things, — not their decay. 

"For the rest, Gibbon's is the worst English that was 
ever written by an educated Englishman. Having no 
imagination and little logic, he is alike incapable of pic- 
turesqueness or wit ; his epithets are malicious without 
point, sonorous without weight, and have no oITice but to 
make a flat sentence turgid." 

Ay de mi! At this rate the "traveller from New 
Zealand," who has been so long en route ajid who has 
already been provided with such a wealth of picturesque 
adventure by graphic pens, will soon be able to sketch 
from the Duomo of Boston the broken arches of 
Gibbon's bridge, once thought to furnish such a 
goodly, noble, and enduring communication between us 
and antiquity. 

It was thus that 

" A falcon, towering in her pride of place. 
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." 

The solid truth seems to be, however, that in spite of 
Iluskin and his abysmal soot-pot, the fame of Gibbon 
rests on monumental foundations, and will last unshaken 
to the end of all things, supreme and unsurpassable in 

108 



GIBBON'S PLACE 

accuracy, thoroughness, lucidity, and comprehensive 
grasp of a vast subject. Never has historic truth been 
moulded into a grander, a more expressive, or a more 
artistic form than that which she received at his hands, 
or one more worthy of her high desert. His work is a 
mighty and massive masterpiece from one whose insight 
into human character and whose powers of accurate 
generalization were rarely equalled or even approached. 
He created a new world out of ancient chaos. His was 
the spirit of a God that " moved upon the face of the 
waters " and said, " Let there be light, and there was 
light." And ever since his day mankind, or at least the 
thinking portion thereof, has been steadily progressing 
in his direction, both from an historical and a religious 
point of view. 

Gibbon's "place" was a sinecure on the Board of 
Trade, which gave him X800 a year for doing noth- 
ing but to incubate his salary, — "incubens pur- 
punt atque auro." As he says in his "Memoirs" with 
candid naivete when referring to this appointment as 
" one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantii- 
tions," "it must be allowed that our duty was not intol- 
erably severe, and that I enjoyed many days and weeks 
of repose without being called away from my library to 
the office." No wonder that Burke in the House of 
Commons made some sarcastic reflections on " the per- 
petual virtual adjournment and the unbroken sitting 
vacation of the Board of Trade." 

Fox had a copy of the first volume of the " Decline 
and Fall," that had been given to him by the author 
shortly after its publication. It was sold under the 
hammer in 1781 with the rest of Fox's library after his 
death and contained the following memorandum and 
verses in his hand : " The author of this work declared 
publicly at Brooke's upon the delivery of the Spanish 

109 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

rescript in June, 1779, that ' there was no salvation for 
this country unless six of the heads of the cabinet 
council were cut off and laid upon the tables of both 
Iiouses of parliament as examples ; ' and in less than a 
fortnight he accepted a place under the same cabinet 
council. 

" On the Author's Promotion to the Board of Trade in 1779. 

" King George in a fright 

Lest Gibbon should write 
The story of England's disgrace, 

Thought no way so sure 

His pen to secure 
As to give the historian a place." 

" But his caution is vaiu, 

'T is the curse of his reign 
That his projects should never succeed ; 

Tho' he wrote not a line, 

Yet a cause of decline 
In our author's example we read. 

" His book well describes 
How corruption and bribes 
O'erthi'ew the great empire of Rome; 
And his writings declare 
A degeneracy there, 
"Which his conduct exhibits at home. 

" Charles James Fox." 

Lord North was then Premier, and the above entry 
shows very clearly that Gibbon had been induced to 
desert his former friends in such a peremptory fashion 
solely by the offer of wealthy preferment and the privi- 
lege it would give him for the enjoyment of his books 
and that life of scholarly ease which he cared for more 
than for aught else.^ A couple of years later, however, 

1 It is gratifying to reflect that Gibbon was duly grateful to Lord 
Korth, and showed it by domeing his name on high forever in the 

110 



THE BOARD OF TRADE 

when Gibbon had lost his office, Fox had a chance to 
retaliate, of which he availed himself by giving to 
another the position of secretary to the English embassy 
worth £1200 per annum, which the historian had been 
eager to secure. 

Though Gibbon's marvellous talent for quiet and 
prolific gestation was apjjarently chronic and incurable, 
Burke and his other political enemies sought and found 
an effectual remedy by abolishing the Board of Trade. 
This was really the only cure for his case, since other- 
wise he might have continued sitting there forever, like 
the "infelix Theseus" and "the three heavenly wit- 
nesses," and so have complied with the advice tendered 
in a similar instance of perpetuity. 

" Si qua sede sedes et sit tibi commoda sedes, 
Istu sede sede, nee ab ista sede recede." 

And so it befell that the decline and fall of the 
Board of Trade through the action of Burke, and the 
subsequent retribution exacted by Fox, secured for 
the world the last three volumes of the "Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire," — three arches of "that 
splendid bridge between the old world and the new," — 
since the loss of £800 per annum and the failure to 
replace it by £1200 stimulated its reluctant author, 
cramped with indolence, to go to work again, which 
otherwise he never would have done. 

Gibbon was so fat, weighty, and voluminous that 
"sitting" was his natural status in quo,^ his physical 

preface to the last three vohimes of the " Decline and Fall," published 
in 1TS8, through words of truth, justice, and friendly sympathy: a 
noble tribute to one who was doubly atllicted by no real fault of his 
own, and who had passed through many political storms without 
making one personal enemy. 

^ Gibbon writes to Lord Sheffield from Lausanne, Sept. 30, 1783: 
" Yesterday afternoon I lay, or at least sat, in state to receive visits, 
and at the same moment my room was filled with four different 

111 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

forte, and at the Board of Trade " the bn.siness of this 
man looked out of liim. " Like Quintus Fabius Cunctator, 
"sedendo vincit." It was only when he tried to rise 
that his weakness became obvious, and when he once at 
Lausanne prostrated liimself at the feet of Madame de 
Crouzas, he soon passed from sitting to settling ; from 
sedentary to sedimentary.^ 

♦* When Fate and Corpulency seemed to say, 
Here 's a Petitioner that must forever pray, 
For he was heavier than the income tax 
And tvv'enty times more difficult to raise." 

This incident, as related by Madame de Genlis in the 
ninth volume of her " jM^moires," and the accompanying 
story of the Abb^ Chauvelin, " bossu par devant et par 
derrifere," are surely as exhilarating as anything to be 
found in all literature. I venture to say, aproijos of 
this subject, that the " M^moires " of Madame de Genlis 
are still extremely entertaining, and ought to be resur- 
rected either in French or in English. 

With Gibbon even exercise on horseback was reduced 
to a sort of lethargic locomotion, like that of a fat abbot 
on a mule. A young man was giving liira an exciting 
account of a hunt which he said was " an almost con- 
tinued gallop, during which he stood erect in his stir- 
rups for a considerable time." At the end of the story 
the historian said, "I thought, Mr. Cambridge, until 
now, that riding was a sedentary occupation." 

nations. The loudest of these nations was the single voice of the 
Abbe Eaynal, who has chosen this place for the asylum of freedom 
and history." The abbe did not make a very favorable impression, 
for Gibbon speaks of his conversation as " intolerably loud, peremp- 
tory, and insolent; and you would imagine that he alone were the 
Monarch and legislator of the world." 

1 " Celadon Gibbon, false swain," as Carlyle calls him, for jilting 
Demoiselle Curchod and then betaking himself "to fresh fields and 
pastures new." 

112 



PORTRAIT BY SIR JOSHUA 

Professionally speaking, Gibbon "sat" to Sir Joshua 
Reynolds for his portrait (in 1779), the result being 
that famous and unparalleled triumph over obstacles 
■which would have been the despair of any other artist. 
Gibbon's face was endued with an ignoble meanness, 
not to say vulgarity of features, which rarely displayed 
one ray of intellect or beauty. He had little piggish 
eyes and a snub nose like a punctuation point, that 
seemed to be forever struggling to save itself from 
sinking in the tumultuous billows of rolling fatness. 
" His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, 
almost in the centre of his visage," and around it on 
every side rose swelling upheavals of puffy obesity 
including a vast superfluity of double chin.^ His whole 
face was a palpable contradiction and a conspicuous pro- 
test against Carlyle's assertion that "the Ideal, or Soul, 
place it in what ugliest Body you may, will irradiate 
said Body with its own nobleness." Nevertheless, Sir 
Joshua did portray him in a standing attitude and a 
brilliant scarlet coat and white lace tie, and, moreover, 
as Claude Phillips says, with an effect that places his 
work "in the very front rank of his character portraits, " 
and, as he adds, "above all remarkable for the auda- 
cious realism with which he preserves the embonpoint of 
his friend, whose type, with its insignificant nose and 
abnormally heavy chin, would be franklj'- comic, were it 
not that the expression of genuine power and intellec- 
tuality dominates and sobers the spectator." It is thus 

1 Malone informs us that •when Gibbon was introduced to the old 
and blind Madame du Dcffand, " the servant, happening to stretch 
out her mistress's hand to lay hold of the historian's cheek, she 
thought, upon feeling its rounded contour, that some trick had been 
played upon her with the silting part of a child, and exclaimed, 
'Fidonc!' " 

Subsequently she told Gibbon that he " ought to have been a 
Frenchman." Feeling a fellow had made her "wondrous kind." 
8 113 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

that genuine artistic genius, filled with divine efful- 
gence, ever comes to the rescue of other genius in dis- 
tress and enriches it with its own superabundant vitality. 
Never, surely, did any human lineaments exemplify more 
fully than those of Gibbon the saying of the gracious 
Duncan, — 

" There's no art 
To find the mind's construction in the face." 

Sir Joshua was famous for the characteristic attitudes 
in which he represented his subjects, but in this case it 
would seem that a sitting posture would have been far 
more natural than the one he chose. It must have been 
peculiarly irksome to Gibbon, who was so saturated 
with indolence that he would not even pare his nails; 
and it is certainly a tribute both to the historian's 
vanity and to the painter's influence that Gibbon could 
be kept standing in the same posture for even ten 
minutes at a time, though radiant in scarlet and white. 

This work was peculiarly acceptable to Gibbon, not 
only as a revelation of exquisite skill, genius, and artistic 
tact, but as the tribute of an intimate friend in whose 
society he had found the greatest enjoyment of his 
London life; for Reynolds was not merely an artist, 
but a gentleman of culture and learning, with well- 
developed powers of entertainment. The historian took 
the portrait with him to Lausanne in 1783 and kept it 
till 1790, when he sent it to Lord Sheffield "in spite of 
private reluctance and public discontent." 

I present herewith a silhouette of Gibbon as he appeared 
ill propria persond. The original forms the frontispiece 
of the first volume of his " Miscellaneous Works, " edited 
by Lord Sheffield, his dearest companion from youth 
up, and published in 1796. On page 435 the editor 
styles it " as complete a likeness of Mr. Gibbon, as to 
person, face, and manner, as can be conceived." 

114 




GIBBON IN SILHOUETTE 



MEMOIRE JUSTIFICATIF 

I give also a photograph of tlie great historian as por- 
trayed by Sir Joshua, and refined, enriched, and adorned 
with the best that was in him by the inspiration of a 
master. The original is now at Sheffield Park. 

The same striking contrast, by the way, is to be 
observed in two well-known portraits of Turner. 

Gibbon was indebted for his sinecure to a political 
pamphlet written in the spring of 1779 and entitled 
"M(5moire Justificatif pourservir de Rdponse al'Expos^ 
de la Cour de France." Its object was the defence of 
George III. and his policy in regard to France and the 
American war. As it shows the rancorous animosity of 
Gibbon himself towards the colonies, I quote one or 
two paragraphs : — 

" Au milieu de cette tranquillite les premieres etincelles 
de la discorde s'allumerent en Amerique. Les intrigues 
d'un petit nombre de chefs audacieux et criminels, qui 
abuserent de la simplicity cr^dule de leurs compatriotes 
seduiserent insensiblement la plus grande partie des co- 
lonies angloises a lever I'eteudard de la revolte centre la 
mere patrie, a qui elles ^toient redevables de leur existence 
et de leur bonheur. ... La cour de Versailles ne rougib 
point d'avilir sa dignite par les liaisons secretes qu'elle 
forma avec des sujets rebelles et apres avoir epuise toutes 
les ressources honteuses de la perfidie et de la dissimula- 
tion, elle osa avouer a la face de I'Europe, indignee de sa 
conduite le traite solennel que les ministres du roi tres 
Chretien avoient signe avec les agents tenebreux des co- 
lonies angloises qui ne refondoient leur independance pre- 
tendue que sur la hardiesse de leur revolte.'' 

(In the midst of this tranquillity the first sparks of 
dissension were lighted in America. The intrigues of a 
small number of audacious and criminal leaders gradually 
tempted the majority of the English colonists to raise the 
standard of rebellion against the mother country, to which 
they were indebted for their existence and for their pros- 

115 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

perity. . . . The court of Versailles did not blush to degrade 
its dignity by the secret compacts which it made with 
rebellious subjects, and after having exhausted all the 
shameful expedients of treachery and hypocrisy, dared to 
proclaim in the face of Europe, disgusted at its conduct, 
the solemn treaty which the ministers of the most Christian 
king had signed with the shady agents of the English 
colonies, who modelled their pretended independence only 
upon the audacity of their revolt.) 

There is but a single reference to Franklin, and that 
a contemptuous one, as "Le Sieur Franklin": — 

" Le corsaire Le Reprisal qui avoit amene en Europe le 
Sieur Franklin, agent des colonies revoltees, fut re9U avec 
ses deux prises qu'il avoit faites en route." 

(The privateer, Le Reprisal, which had carried to Europe 
Mister Franklin, agent of the revolted colonies, was received 
with its two prizes that it had taken on the voyage.) 

On this tract and its various adjuncts "Wilkes wrote 
one of his spirited, sarcastic, and unanswerable com- 
ments, which was published in the "Observer," 

*' What a beautiful consistency of conduct The Observer 
must remark in our Prince ! Mr. Gibbon obtains a place, 
of £800 per an. and the Welch champion of Christendom, 
Henry Edward Davies, B. A., of Balliol College, Oxford, 
who attacked him as an ignorant, but daring, infidel, secures 
a pension. The avowed atheist, David Hume, was ap- 
pointed, with a large salary, to represent the person of our 
most religious King abroad, at the politest court in Europe. 
The doughty defender of the Kirk of Scotland, Dr. James 
Beattie, a professor in Lord Bute's university of Aberdeen, 
stays at home and is rewarded with a pension, by the head 
of the church of England, for having overthrown this 
mighty David. Surely this must be the richest and most 
foolish country in the universe ! " 

116 




GIBBON, BY SIK JOSHUA UKYNOI-DS 
From the Origiual at Sliollield P.irk 



I 



AN HISTORICAL REVIEW 

To return to the copy of the "Historical Review" 
presented by Franklin to the Bodleian Library and his 
peremptory denial that he was its author, I desire to 
say that as to the truth, Franklin, though a professed 
admirer, was not an exacting one, and ever took care not 
to make himself offensive by an intemperate display there- 
of on any occasion, as a sine quH non. He was well aware 
of the saying of Bacon " that a mixture of a lie doth ever 
add pleiisure ; " and on an emergency, when other means 
of diversion or deviation were lacking, he was quite will- 
ing to act accordingly, though ho never knowingly 
stretched the truth without judicious and satisfactory 
reasons and careful provision of an evasive loophole for 
retreat. His knowledge of French had taught him that 
"le vrai n'estpas toujours vraisemblable, " and he gladly 
gave the world the benefit of the doubt and sought to 
tone it down to the level of his contemporaries. With 
him the naked truth ought by no means to be indecently 
exposed, lest unscrupulous persons might take too great 
liberties, but should be gracefully draped and acceptably 
and plausibly adorned with accessories and tolerations 
so as to hide any abrupt and distasteful transitions. 
Hence, in his " Poor Richard, " he was careful not to make 
too free with this delicate refinement. Here one finds 
over twelve hundred maxims to stimulate thrift, temper- 
ance, order, industry, and every other form of worldly 
wisdom and utilitarian common-sense ; but veracity is non- 
committally left to shift for herself, generally speaking, 
and all the incentives in her behalf can easily be reck- 
oned on the fingers of one hand, though he was careful 
to say nothing against her, as a cardinal abstraction and 
useful under certain conditions. Franklin's relation to 
truth was the outcome of his mental structure and a law 
of his being, and as natural and inevitable as "the 
duplicity of /x Herculis." It recalled the story of the 

117 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

excellent French cure who could never bear to hurt any 
one's feelings. On a certain Sunday, when preaching 
on the picturesque tale of Samson and the foxes, he 
portrayed the woes of the hapless martyred Philistines 
and their ruined crops with such eloquent and sympa- 
thetic fervor that he drew a flood of sympathetic tears 
from every eye. Sorely distressed by the grief he had 
caused, the good pastor gave vent to the promptings of 
his heart and exclaimed: "Mais, ce n'est pas vrai, mes 
enfants! Ce n'est pas vrai." 

Thus Franklin never told the truth without mitigat- 
ing circumstances and letting it down gently and 
accommodatingly, so as to put it where it would do the 
most good. His wisdom was justified by the event, for 
it often returned to him after a time with various 
unforeseen accessories. This was one of the ways in 
which, as Horace Walpole observes, Franklin "gave a 
new color to his age." Hence came " Polly Baker," the 
lost Pleiad of New England, with her anonymous off- 
spring, her tale of woe, and the amazing novelties it 
diffused all over Europe in regard to the moral tone and 
the high ideals of the New England judiciary and the 
customs of its people.^ 

1 In 1726, Franklin wrote: " I grew convinced that truth,, sincerity, 
and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost 
importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions, 
which still remain in my journal book, to practise them ever while I 
lived." These be brave words, and probably there were many more 
sentiments, qmite as noble, in Franklin's "journal book," though it 
has never been found. It is quite likely that the writer came to the 
conclusion that they were so abundant and high toned as to be quite 
impracticable and thus cancelled them altogether. 

Franklin in his "Autobiography " says in regard to his "various 
enumerations of the moral virtues " : — 

"I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time 
occurred to me as necessary or desirable." Among these truthfulness 
does not appear, the nearest approach to it being "sincerity," 
which is by no means the same thing, as one may be sincere in the 

118 



THE VERACITY OF ADAMS 

In the matter of veracity, Adams was far more con- 
sistent and conscientious than his colleague Franklin. 

Adams had no more attractive personal qualities than 
a buzz-saw, or a graveyard obelisk, or George Ticknor, 
but, nevertheless, he had many fine points, like a porcu- 
pine, and always kept the sermons of Bishop Butler on 
his table as a piece de resistance. As to his love of 
truth, lie has never received his full meed of justice, 
though he was a man of highly polished interior, and 
this was one of his dominant qualities. He was really 
the X-ray of his day. He often labored under a cloud 
in this respect because the field had been so largely 
preoccupied by Washington, who, as the nation pro- 
gressed, was generally supposed to have absorbed all the 
veracity that was left in it after the Revolution. Yet 
though Adams was never coupled with a cherry-tree, or 
even with so much as a gooseberry -bush, in the hearts 
of his adoring countrymen, he deserved quite as much 
fame for candor as his more illustrious fellow-patriot. 
He never tired of telling the truth, from his point of 
view, about every one, especially about Franklin; and 
he was so unfamiliar with deception, that he never 
could have told a lie if he had met with it, unless he 
had seen it in the latter's soap, when a stern sense of 
duty would have impelled him to make a clean breast 

propagation of the rankest falsehood. " Truthfulness " is a word of 
more limited import than "sincerity," writes Mr. Bradley. "A 
truthful man is one who habitually speaks the truth, who does not 
lie or misrepresent. A sincere man is one who feels and believes all 
he professes, directly or indirectly, to feel and believe." 

To the above Franklin adds, by way of comment, " Use no hurtful 
deceit; think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak 
accordingly." 

This affords two characteristic and obvious apertures: the infer- 
ence being that you cari use deceit, if you think it will not hurt any 
one, and that you have a perfect right to keep silence, if you think it 
best for your own interests, no matter what the truth may be. 

119 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

of it and give the world the benefit of his discover^'.' 
Doubtless, the amiable Franklin would have fully con- 
doned the criticism in view of the lil^eral quantity of 
gratuitous advertising he had got. Adams never ceased 
to feel a tender solicitude about Franklin's reputation, 
and he looked after it with ever-increasing assiduity to 
the end, being only anxious to let every one know the 
real facts. This continued for more than twenty yeai"s 
after the latter's death, and the readers of the " Boston 
Patriot," in 1811, were favored with many columns of 
revelations before unsuspected, and they finally acknowl- 
edged that they knew at least as much concerning 
Franklin's true inwardness as Jonah, in his "tumult- 
uous privacy of storm," discovered about that of the 
whale, for both he and they had been there. ^ How 
much more of the genuine Adams savor could a single 
paragraph contain than the following tribute to Frank- 
lin's memory in the "Boston Patriot" of May 22, 1811? 

1 Adams obviously agreed with Shelley, who, in his essay on " The 
Necessity of Atheism," says that in the writing thereof he was influ- 
enced only by " a love of truth," and concludes with the sentiment 
that " Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of 
mankind." 

2 Lord Shaftesbury, whom Adams and Franklin so greatly admired, 
had also "been there," as his lordship shows in his description of 
Jonah in the " Characteristics." His caricature of " Jonah " recalls 
in certain ways Franklin's transmogrification of "Job." 

"Pettish as this Prophet was, unlike a man, and resembling some 
refractory boyish Pupil, it may be said that God, as a kind Tutor, 
was pleased to humor him, bear with his anger, and in a lusory man- 
ner expose his childish Frowardness and shew him to himself. 

"'Arise (said his gracious Lord) and goto Ninive!' 'No such 
matter,' says our Prophet to himself, but away over-sea for Tarshish. 
He fairly plays the Truant, like an arch School-Boy; hoping to hide 
out of the way. But his Tutor had good Eyes and long Eeach. He 
overtook him at Sea; where a Storm was already prepared for his 
Exercise and a Fish's Belly for his Lodgings. The Eenegade found 
himself in harder Durance than any at Land. He was sufficiently 
mortify'd. He grew good, prayed, moralized and spoke mightily 
against Lying Vanitys." 

120 



SWEDENBORG'S ANGELS 

" To all those talents and qualities for the foundation of 
a great and lasting character which were held up to the 
view of the whole world by the University of Oxford, the 
Eoyal Society of London, and the Royal Academy of 
Science in Paris, were added, it is believed, more artificial 
modes of diffusing, celebrating, and exaggerating his repu- 
tation than were ever before or since practised in favor of 
any individual." 

As another example of that searching, virile, and 
independent candor which, sparing none, ranged so 
freely from "the booby Charles I." to the "canting dog, 
Cromwell," this farther tribute to his fellow-patriot may 
fitly be added : — 

" I am not ignorant that most of his positions and hy- 
potheses have been controverted. No sentiment more weak 
and superficial was ever avowed by the most absurd phi- 
losopher than some of his, particularly one which he 
caused to be inserted in the first constitution of Pennsyl- 
vania." 

Swedenborg attributes the rich endowment of the 
angels — that is, of his angels ; the angels with whom 
he was so chummy — to the fact that " their interiors 
are open." If this be all that is needed to construct an 
angel, Franklin must surely rank quite high in the 
celestial hierarchy, — thanks to the truthful Adams, 
who made the very wind whistle through him, both in 
this world and in the next.^ 

* This resolution to get at the truth about Franklin and to impart 
it to the world began very early, as Ave read in Adams's " Autobiog- 
raphy." 

"Franklin, although he was commonly as silent on committees 
as in Congress, upon this occasion ventured so far as to intimate his 
concurrence with me in these sentiments; though, as will be seen 
hereafter, he shifted them as easily as the wind ever shifted, and 
assumed a dogmatical tone in favor of an opposite system." — Auto- 
biograpkit, JFA. 40, 1776. Debate in committee concerning the 
model of a treaty to be proposed to France. 

121 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

It is quite possible that, in spite of apparent ethical 
testimony to the contrary, Franklin may have been 
wiser than some people think as to his lack of vener- 
ation for the truth. At least, he is entitled to the 
benefit of the doubt and is not altogether without sup- 
port. The same conclusions seem to have been reached 
by that distinguished scientist. Prof. St. George IMivart, 
whose opinion is entitled to respect, all the more that 
he is a member of the Roman Catholic Church in good 
standing. In his learned work, "Lessons from Nature," 
he says ; — 

" Experience may show that truth has been generally 
beneficial, but it can never make its beneficence axiomatic, 
or render it impossible that in certain cases ignorance may 
not be bliss, wisdom folly, and deceitfulness expedient. 
Theists may, indeed, exclaini, — 

' Magna est Veritas et prevalebit,' 

but the experiences which history makes known to us amply 
support the declaration, — 

'Magnum est mendacium et prevaluit,' " — 

Great is falsehood, and it has prevailed." 

The above work was dedicated by Professor Mivart 
to Cardinal Newman, who, like himself, was a "per- 
vert" from the Church of England. Practically, the 
latter's view of the truth is different from that of his 
admirer, for Newman says in his " Anglican Difficulties "^ 
that " it were better for the earth to fail and all the many 
millions who are upon it to die of starvation in extreme 
agony, than that one soul should tell one wilful un- 
truth." Surely, the most catholic believer must detect 
a certain tinge of incongruity here. There must be a 

^ Lectures on certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in submitting 
to the Catholic Church. 1850. Lecture viii. 

122 



PROFESSOR MIVART 

rift in one lute or in the other. At least, so it strikes 
many outsiders. If the professor is wrong, however, Saint 
Newman will certainly save him, were it only in conse- 
quence of that eulogistic dedication, on the same 
grounds that the Church now believes that even Kenan 
will at last be saved, — after a suitable stay in purga- 
tory, — because " he spoke well of Saint Francis of 
Assisi." 

Prof. St. George Mivart has done even more than this 
for the redemption of his contemporaries from past super- 
stition. In a most learned and ingenious, a most pro- 
found and elaborate, disquisition on "Happiness in 
Hell" in the "Nineteenth Century" of December, 1892, 
he has achieved the most amazing results, — results that 
must excite a poignant regret in the minds of those 
clergy, and others no less, who have labored so hard in 
these latter days to explain away the ancient Inferno 
altogether as a mere lusus theologiae, and that in face of 
the declaration of Saint John that " all liars shall have 
their part in the lake that burnetii with fire and brim- 
stone." With the aid of much erudition, psychological 
and other, the professor has reconstructed this forlorn 
hope of sinners entirely, and we learn that " Hell in its 
widest sense must be considered an abode of happiness 
transcending all our most vivid anticipations, so that 
man's natural capacity for happiness is there gratified 
to the very uttermost, and there is and will be for all 
eternity a real and true happiness in hell." 

It is thus that wisdom, as Solomon says, "finds out 
knowledge of witty inventions," and it is thus that a 
far-seeing intellect harmonizes many seeming discord- 
ances. Dante may have been right, after all, when 
" uttering wisdom from the central deep " he describes 
in his Inferno the "prati di fresca verdura," the "sweet 
fields dressed in living green ; " and Colonel Ingersoll 

123 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGUTS 

should not be Llamed for asking in one of his sermons : 
" Christianity pkices Beethoven in hell. Where do you 
think they have the best music to-night?" Professor 
Mivart may Avell say in his "Lessons from Nature," 
" Time has brought about strange changes. ' Jam redit 
et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.'" Quite likely at 
this very moment, for aught we know, Beethoven 
may be playing a new angelic sonata to Voltaire and 
Theodore Parker,^ in acknowledgment of their per- 
sistent efforts to exalt the devil and to replace him 
on his throne. " If Satan also be divided against him- 
self, how shall his kingdom stand ? " It remains to be 
seen how Saint Newman will regard this very advanced 
action on the part of his disciple. Time will show 
whether that dedication will save the professor in such 
a peculiar emergency. This new departure naturally 
opens a new, broad, and endless vista of possible change. 
It would seem at first sight that heaven must be con- 
tent to become in future a back number, or at best a 
suburb, the Bible superfluous, and that religion would 
have to submit to a total reorganization. At any 
rate, the boundary between these two elysiums would 
of course become very misty and ill-defined, and the 
seraphs, if they wislied to hold their own, would have 

1 Satan was not wholly without friends, even before Theodore 
Parker had written him up and tried to raise him to the God-head, 
thus changing the meaning of his own name from " the gift of God " 
to " the gift of the devil." 

" Lord Thurlow often read Milton aloud, and Satan's speeches 
were his especial favorites. On finishing one of them he was fre- 
quently heard to say, ' He was a fine fellow; I wish he had won.' " 

The Times, Feb. 16, 1832. 

In the matter of music Colonel IngersoU might have found a firm 
support and a valid precedent in " Paradise Lost," where the "notes 
angelical to many a harp " of spirits immortal 

" Suspended Hell and took with ravishment 
The thronging audience." 
124 



CARDINAL NEWMAN 

something else to do than to "lie all dissolved in 
hallelujahs," as Dryden, that other "pervert" to the 
Roman Catholics, portrays them. 

I should hardly be doing justice to the exact relation 
between Professor Mivart and his fellow churchmen 
were I to fail to add an extract from a discourse by 
Newman in 1843, " On the Theory of Developments in 
Religious Doctrine," page 342: "Hence it is not more 
than hyperbole to say that, in certain cases, a lie is the 
nearest approach to truth. This seems the meaning, 
for instance, of Saint Clement when he says, ' He (the 
Christian) both thinks and speaks the truth, unless 
when at any time, in the way of treatment, as a physi- 
cian toward his patients, so for the welfare of the sick, 
he will be false, or will tell a falsehood, as the Sophists 
speak." 

It would appear that the passage above quoted from 
" Anglican Difficulties " serves to illustrate the writer's 
own "development in religious doctrine," and it may be 
that Professor Mivart will ultimately profit by his expe- 
rience. To the outer world the professor and the car- 
dinal seem at one time to have been perilously near to 
each other in their views of abstract truth, and it would 
certainly have tested all the great endowments of the 
latter as a subtle dialectician to explain precisely why 
he left Saint Clement to his own devices as " no bettei 
than one of the wicked " and changed his theory for one 
so much more satisfactory to English public opinion. 
Such an explanation would have shown very conclu- 
sively whether Carlyle's estimate was correct, that 
Newman had not "the intellect of a moderate-sized 
rabbit." 

The real belief of the cardinal as to this subject, and 
certainly that of his church, is well presented by another 
pervert and a warm friend and devotee of his, Prof. 

125 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

William G. Ward, in his "Ideal of a Christian Church," 
published in 1846. 

" Candor is rather an intellectual than a moral virtue 
and by no means either universally or distinctively 
characteristic of the saintly mind." This is a complete 
summary of the whole attitude of the Roman Catholic 
Church in this matter, and is precisely the light in which 
truth was regarded by Franklin, who, like that church, 
felt himself at perfect liberty to tell a falsehood rather 
than the truth, if he thought such a course was more 
likely to profit himself or any one else, as truth was but 
"an intellectual virtue " at best. 

In a sermon entitled "Wisdom and Innocence," New- 
man referred to the choice of the serpent by Christ as a 
pattern of wisdom, when saying to the Twelve, " Be ye 
therefore wise as serpents," and claimed that it was 
thus chosen for the purpose of inciting the faithful "as 
their bounden duty to rival the wicked in endowments 
of mind and to excel them in their exercise," in other 
words, "to fight the devil with fire." 

This utilitarian doctrine of conscientious mendacity 
is still stoutly defended and practised by the Roman 
Catholic Church. There are four Saints Ananias. 

The blessed Saint Alfonso de' Liguori, Bishop of Santa 
Agata, who died "in the odor of sanctity," in 1787, 
and was "beatified" by Pius VII. in 1816 and "can- 
onized" in 1839 by Gregory XVI., repeatedly in his 
writings permits the use of falsehood in various forms 
of deceit and equivocation and states that a lie may be 
"confirmed by an oath "in numerous cases, especially 
when the best interests of the Church may thereby be 
subserved, the only judge of its availability being he 
who utters it. His attitude in this regard was indorsed 
by both the above-named infallible Popes, each of 
whom especially decreed that "in all the writings of 

126 



SAINT ALFONSO 

Alfonso de' Liguori, published or not published, there 
is nothing worthy of censure." ^ 

Cardinal Newman, in 1864, said in regard to Saint 
Alfonso, — " who was a lover of truth and whose inter- 
cession I trust I shall not lose, " — "I plainly and posi- 
tively state, and without any reserve, that I do not at 
all follow this holy and charitable man in this position 
of his teaching." See note on p. 152. 

As the writer had repeatedly expressed his convic- 
tion that every pope was necessarily infallible and the 
chosen representative of God on earth, and that no man 
could reject his decrees except at the risk of his eternal 
salvation, he must be left to settle as best he can with 
those pontiffs who decided that any man might lie for 
the benefit of the Church, and with whose decisions he 
had the presumption and inconsistency to disagree, to 
say nothing of the peril he chose to incur of mortal sin 
and endless death.''' 

1 See a pamphlet " On Dr. NeTnnan's Kejection of Liguori's Doc- 
trine of Equivocation," by Rev, Frederick Meyrick, p. 20. In this 
work the whole subject is treated with an ability and learning that 
admit of no refutation. 

* "All Catholics agree in two points: First, that the Pope cannot 
err either in framing decrees of faith or general precepts of morality. 
Second, that the Pope, whether it be possible for him to err or not, 
is to be obeyed by all the faithful." — On the Development of Christian 
Doctrine, by Dr. Xewman. 

Newman ought not to have been any more popular in Scotland 
than Voltaire, for he puts the spontaneous generation of the loaves 
and fishes precisely on a par with the indefinite multiplication of 
the fragments of the true cross, which, as my readers probably have 
heard, are numerous enough to build a ship. This view makes the 
Scotch miracle, and, in fact, all others, ridiculous, for it gives essen- 
tially the same credit to the silly inventions of designing and un- 
scrupulous clerics as to the marvels attributed to Christ himself, and 
allows no difference between the healing of Peter's mother-in-law or 
the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the two skulls of Saint Pat- 
rick, as a lad and as a man, now in Ireland, or all the distracted esca- 
pades of Saint Walburga, as served up by Newman in his life of her. 

127 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

Franklin must have found much encouragement for 
his habit of fluent, affable, and specious delusion in the 
Old Testament and among some of the Fathers of the 
early Church as well. Successful chicanery was always 
respected under the Old Dispensation, and as for the 
strict habit of truth, it was as utterly unknown as a bal- 
loon. Jacob and David, Samson, Rahab, the ances- 
tress of Christ,^ and Judith, who slew Holof ernes, and 
many other great ones of those days, probably foresaw 
the outcome of Figaro's sentiment that " anciens petits 
mensonges assez mal plantds ont produit de grosses, 
grosses vdritds." Origen himself "did permit a wise 
and good man to lie, if so be it were for the welfare 
of them for whom the lie was made." And even Saint 
Jerome, like Saint Clement, favors this view and inti- 
mates that Saint Paul and Saint Peter " did use a kind 
of simulation." 2 



Men like Cardinal Newman and Father Pusey have the unbounded 
stomach of a cyclone, which, in its omnivorous absorption, scoops up 
everything that comes in its way, and their credulity is such that they 
could swallow a score of Bactrian camels, in spite of their vast an- 
gularity and their repulsive ugliness, if the interests of " the faith" 
required it, as easily as other men could eat an egg. 

See the " Essay on Miracles," by Dr. Newman, 1843. 

^ Life of Rahab the Harlot, by the Right Reverend Lord Arthur 
Charles Hervey, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

^ The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Minister of the Church of 
Zurich. Dedicated to Edward VI. 1550. 3d Dec. 4th Sermon. 

Saint Peter certainly did "use a kind of simulation" in the case of 
Ananias and Sapphira, if the details were really such as they have 
been handed down to us, when he allowed the young men to carry 
out the body of the former and bury it, like that of an animal, with- 
out even telling his wife, apparently with the design of entrapping 
her into a falseliood, for the benefit of the socialistic interests of the 
church, that the "great fear" which followed upon this scheme 
might prevent a repetition of the act it was designed to punish. 
Assuredly no more cruel or inhuman deed could have been done than 
the burial of a husband without even allowing the wife to perform 
the last sad rites of grief and affection. Viscount Amberly in his 

123 



THE UNTRUTHFUL JEWS 

Almost the last words of Israel, who certainly knew 
all about it, were, "I will lie with my fathers." — 
Gen. xlvii. 30. 

This general contempt for veracity in the Old Tes- 
tament can be easily accounted for on the ground 
that the Jews had no place in their mental struc- 
ture for any form of truth. They could not appre- 
ciate it in any shape, ethical, historic, scientific, or 
other. It was as foreign to them as Shakespeare is to 
the French. As far as concerns the great phenomena 
of nature, the Jews never even tried to get at their true 

"Analysis of Religious Belief" terras this "the worst action in the 
way of interference in mundane matters of which the God of the New 
Testament is guilty." It is to be hoped that it never actually occurred 
and that the w^hole story of Ananias and Sapphira was merely the 
interpolation of some Judaizing scribe who sought to cast discredit on 
the new religion. Saint Clement tells us that when the wife of Saint 
Peter — the first pope — was hurried away to martyrdom, even her 
murderers were not so pitiless as to refuse him an interview and the 
opportunity to say a few last loving words and to ask the blessing of 
the Lord upon her. Saint Peter might have done at least as much as 
that for Ananias before " consenting unto his death," and probably 
would have done so if the whole narrative had ever been anything 
but a baseless invention. 

This supposition seems much more probable from the fact that it 
is the only example of such a cruel and vindictive spirit to be found 
in the Acts. Even if the incident had ever taken place, Luke would 
have been the very last person in the world to record it, for its whole 
tenor is contrary to his own mental temperament, which was ever 
mild and forgiving. As Renan says, " L'Evangile de Luc est par 
excellence I'Evangile du pardon. . . . L'ldc'e que le christianisme a 
des pardons pour tout le monde est bien la sienne. 

" A peine est-il une anecdote, une parabole propre a Luc qui ne 
respire cet esprit de misericorde et d'appel aux pecheurs. La seule 
parole un peu dure qui ait He conserve'e de Jesus devient chez lui un 
apologue plein d'indulgence et de longanimite." — Les Evaiigiles, 
chap. xiii. pp. 26G-7. 

It is worthy of notice that in the second chapter of the Epistle to 
the Galatians, one of the most authentic of Paul's works, the writer 
states that he blamed Peter and "withstood him to the face" because 
he "dissembled." 

9 129 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

meaning, but looked at them simply like so many sav- 
ages. They dwelt constantly in an atmosphere of self- 
delusion, self-exaltation, and personal conceit, believing 
themselves to be "a peculiar people," and the only 
people under the immediate protection of supernatural 
power. Thus they very naturally reconciled themselves 
to any course of action that would tend to their own 
benefit, without the least sense of right or wrong. 
Hence they found it perfectly easy to put implicit faith 
in the vague, misty, rhapsodical utterances of their 
prophets, on the ground that they were oracles directly 
revealed from on high. Such a people could have no 
room for solid truth based on "the eternal verities." 
Everything must be the outcome of hysterical frenzy, 
religious ecstasy, clothed in absurd and extravagant 
imagery, which could be easily explained to mean any- 
thing whatever, according to the fancies, the prefer- 
ences, or the intentions of the interpreter. Their 
whole raison d'etre was based on revenge upon their 
enemies, by any means in their power and by any act. 
As Jeremiah said, " We shall take our revenge on him." 
This was the burden of their Psalms and of the whole 
teaching of the Old Testament. As David says in the 
144th Psalm, " Blessed be the Lord my strength, which 
teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight." 
The " Kedeemer " they had ever in view was one who 
would slaughter their foes by myriads and raise 
themselves to undisputed empire. In such a people 
truth naturally could never find any rest or abiding- 
place, nor could they ever by any possibility develop 
any respect, or even toleration for it ; all the more that 
they were saturated with an utter contempt for everj'- 
thing that was held by other nations to be entitled to 
love, esteem, or consideration. The Jews were nothing 
but a horde of monotheistic barbarians and border 

130 



THE JEWISH GOD 

ruffians, whose God they claimed to belong to them- 
selves exclusively and not to any other nation. They 
did not believe in any future life and were born idola- 
tei-s, who were kept loyal, even to the Deity of their 
own invention, 1 only by threats of impending punish- 
ment and by ignorant and superstitious fear of the more 
thrilling aspects of nature. Their Deity was all that 
"a man of war" implies: fierce, revengeful, pitiless, 
full of fire, fury, havoc, and slaughter ; a God of hate ; 
of earthly'passions and vindictive penalties against every 
form of Jewish evil ; a deity based on Israel's own 
innate prepossessions and typified by the riotous de- 
structiveness of untamed nature, augmented by their 
own superstitious ignorance, pride, and bigotry; a God 
who approved of the murder, banishment, or enslave- 
ment of every non-believer in the ferocious tenets of his 
chosen people, who hewed in pieces, sawed asunder, and 
burned their enemies ^ without the slightest feeling of 
pity or regret. 

^ " The name ' Israel ' means ' El does battle,' and Jehovah was 
the warrior El, after whom the nation styled itself." "Israel," in 
the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," by "Wellhausen. 

" The camp M-ns, so to speak, at once the cradle in which the nation 
was nursed and the smithy in which it was welded into unity; it 
was also the primitive sanctuary. There Israel was and there was 
Jehovah." As Moses and the children of Israel sang on the shore of 
the Red Sea, " Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah is his name." 

Wellhausen farther says, — 

" It was not as if Jehovah had originally been regarded as the God 
of the imiverse who subsequently became the God of Israel. He was 
primarily Israel's God, and only afterwards (very long afterwards) did 
He come to be regarded as the God of the universe. For Moses to 
have given to the Israelites an ' enlightened conception of God ' 
would have been to give them a stone instead of bread; it is in the 
highest degree probable that, with regard to the essential nature of 
Jehovah, as distinct from His relation to men, he allowed them to 
continue in the same way of thinking with their fathers." 

2 Canon Liddon claims that all the "fierce war and indiscriminate 
slaughter " and other infamies of the Jews are not to be considered 

131 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Zola has portrayed the Jews of the present day, who 
are the worthy descendants of their fathers, in words of 
such truthful, graphic, and burning eloquence that I 
give them here in the original, as they would lose so 
much by translation. 

"Cette race maudite qui n'a plus de patrie, plus de 
prince, qui vit en parasite chez les nations, feiguant de 
reconuaitre les lois, mais en realite n'obeissante qu'a son 
Dieu de vol, de sang et de colere ; remplissant partout la 
mission de feroce conquete que ce Dieu lui a donnee, s'eta- 
blissant chez chaque peuple, comme I'araignee au centre de 
sa toile, pour guetter sa proie, sucer le sang de tons, s'en- 
graisser de la vie des autres. Est-ce qu'il y a des juifs 
paysans, des juifs ouvriers ? Non, le travail deshonore, 
leur religion le defend presque, n'exalte que I'exploitation 
du travail d'autrui." — V Argent, page 92. 

Strange that the writer of these sentiments should 
have lived to rally so nobly and at such great personal 
risk in behalf of a Jew who had been unjustly disgraced 
by the very nation for whom he had fought ! 

Carlyle, as his biographer, Froude, informs us, had 
the same views on this subject as Zola. "His dislike 
for Disraeli was perhaps aggravated by his dislike of 
Jews. He had a true Teutonic aversion for that unfor- 
tunate race. . . . They had contributed nothing to the 
' wealth ' of mankind, being mere dealers in money, 
gold, jewels, or else old clothes, material and spiritual." 

He also approved of King John's treatment of them, 

derogatory from any point of view, but were merely designed by the 
Almighty to "portray the vigor and thoroughness with which we 
should endeavor to extirpate sins that may long have settled in our 
hearts." Also, that nothing in the Old Testament means anything, 
except when illumined by the " secondary and spiritual sense of 
Scripture," and so on ad infinitum, even to the complete elucidation 
of the Song of Solomon, of Lot's wife, and Jonah and the whale. 
A Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, Dec. 8, 1889. 

132 



CARLYLE'S VIEWS 

and imagined himself King John with Baron Rothschild 
on the bench before him. 

''Now, sir, the State requires some of those millions you 
have heaped together with your linaucing work. *You 
won't ? ' very well, and he gave a twist with his wrist. — 
' Now will you ? ' and then another twist with the piucers, 
till the millions were yielded." — Froude^ vol. ii. p. 449. 

Carlyle's views were apparently supported by many 
of his countrymen, for Lowell — a shrewd observer — 
writes to Professor Norton in 1878, "They can't get 
over an hereditary itch to pull some of his grinders." 

As to the truth, to sum up the whole matter, the 
attitude of the Jews, from the days of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, has always resembled that of Franklin and 
of the Roman Catholic Church, and has depended alto- 
gether on its availability and not on its moral status, or 
on any sense of a religious loyalty thereto. " Good and 
evil in Hebrew mean primarily nothing more than 
salutary or hurtful; the application of the words to 
virtue and sin is a secondary one, these being regarded 
as serviceable or injurious in their effects." ^ The ninth 
conunandment relates simply to false testimony in a court 
of law, and, like the rest of the Decalogue, has noth- 
ing to do with private offences, but merely with those 
against public order. The Decalogue was essentially a 
legal code and ignored all personal immoralities. It was 
evidently so regarded by the Jews, as is obvious from 
the fact that the Hebrew term for "lying " is different 
from that for " false witness." It was in accordance with 
this moral status ^ that they acted to the end, and Christ 

^ " The Narrative of the Hexateuch," chap, viii., Wellhausen. 

2 This phase of the Jewish character -was well exemplified by Dis- 
raeli, the tj'pical representative of his race in this age, originally a 
Whig radical, scheming for office, theatrical, vulgar, showy, dexter- 
ous and unscrupulous in political tactics, unprincipled, overflowing 

133 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

had learned to understand them well when he said, " If 
I say I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you." 

From a religious point of view, Franklin resembled 
Lamb's roast pig. He was "all neighbors' fare." 
Like Shakespeare, "he was the best of his family," and 
there was more than enough of him to go round, — 
unlike Adams, of whom there was hardly sufficient to 
cover even one sect decently, and who took refuge in 
the Pentateuch as a last resort, for better or worse. 
Franklin, like Cyrus the Conqueror, was "a complete 
religious indifferentist." He was an open door and an 
expansionist of the expansionists in all matters of faith, 
and in his ample bosom, like that of Abraham, — his 
own sole and exclusive Father Abraham, — every pos- 
sible form of human belief could find a welcome and 
ample refuge, — the more, the better. As Adams wrote, 
" He was equally regarded by all sects and denomina- 
tions. The Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. 
The Presbyterians thought him a Presbyterian, and the 
Friends believed him a Quaker. The dissenting clergy 
of England were among his most devoted friends."^ 
Like Thomas Hooker, he was "a judicious Christian," 
and like him, was judicious enough to leave Massachu- 
setts when they made it too hot for him, since, like 

■with gaudy and abusive rhetoric and florid effervescence, who in 
answer to the assertion of Peel that he had once been "ready to 
unite his fortunes with him " in the government, replied that " noth- 
ing of the kind ever occurred and it was entirely foreign to his nature 
to make such an application," though he was well aware that four 
years before he had written in the strongest terms to Sir Robert, 
" appealing to your own heart and to that justice and magnanimity 
which I feel are your characteristics to save me from au intolerable 
humiliation;" that is, by omitting him from a place in the new 
cabinet. 

See " Sir Robert Peel," by Charles Stuart Parker, 1899, vol. ii. p. 
486. Also " The Times " of May 16, 1845. 

1 Boston Patriot, May 22, 1811. 

134 



THE LIBERAL FRANKLIN 

Ann Hutchinson, he had an inquiring mind and 
gradually learned too mucli to be appreciated, even hy 
the Bostonians of that epoch. 

Franklin had too much sense to he bound by any 
creeds or ever to go to extremes. He never could have 
become an abject Christian. He was too liberal, and he 
would have gladly and effusively welcomed the whole 
eighty-eight different ways of getting to heaven that 
Saint Augustine encountered at the beginning of the fifth 
century, and which had already disintegrated the Church 
into splinters, like the fragments into which the " divul- 
sive vinegar" of Hannibal schismatized the Alps to 
help him on the way to Rome. Franklin was a friend 
of virtue in the abstract, — especially when practised 
by others, — but he was no bigot. He was not, as he 
proclaims Socrates to have been in his Almanac, " obsti- 
nately good," nor did he "force unwilling virtue to be 
his." He calmly and philosophically grasped the situa- 
tion, and took good care never to commit himself 
unduly, even when Thomas Hollis styled him " a trim- 
mer." He was an admirable exemplar of that "sweet 
reasonableness " which Matthew Arnold regarded as the 
peculiar essence of Christianity, and he never failed to 
comply with the injunction of Christ to his disciples to 
"make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness," 
that they might ultimately "be received into everlast- 
ing habitations." When, like Katisha, he had "become 
an acquired taste," he returned to Boston and found 
that his former fellow-citizens had gradually learned to 
live up to him, and to realize that in former days " God 
had not revealed his whole will to them," any more 
than he had to the Calvinists, to whom Parson Robin- 
son could not resist the temptation to deal a parting 
whack in his final remarks to the Pilgrims before they 
left Delft Haven for the "^Mayflower," when, though 

135 



A 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

admitting that the Calvinists had been " precious shin- 
ing lights in their time," he sorely lamented that "they 
had stuck where he left them."^ 

Under the guidance of this all-pervading and never- 
failing optimism, Franklin made steady progress under 
full sail to the end, dying in a faith so catholic, so dis- 
interested and so all-embracing, that he might well 
have said with Burns, — • 

" But fare-you-weel, Auld Nickie Ben I 
O, ■wad ye tak' a tliouglit an' men' ! 
Ye aiblins might — I diiina ken — 

Still hae a stake ; 
I 'm wae to think upo' you den, 

Ev'n for your sake." ' 

Though Franklin was not essentially a reverent man,^ 
— his translation of Job was like that of Bottom, — 
there was somewhere in the recesses of his system a 
precipitate of religious feeling inherited, probably, from 
his ancestors. His religion consisted chiefly in a policy 
of catholic and genial adaptation to all beliefs whatever. 
In this respect he was "no pent-up Utica." Why 
should any man be hooped and contracted by the stern 
pressure of an iron-bound creed ? Optimism with him 
seemed as natural a production as the Indian corn of 

1 The whole sura and substance of Franklin's religious tempera- 
ment were ■well exi)ressed by Trilby, ■when she said, "There'll bo 
no wrath for any of us, not even the worst. II y aura amnestie 
gencrale. Papa told me so, and he 'd been a clergyman." 

2 Franklin had a protecting instinct that led him always to tend 
towards the safe side in religious matters, like the wary and apolo- 
getic Spaniard, who, inwardly conscious of " the moral uses of dark 
things," was wont to say, " My good Lord, the Devil," with a care- 
ful outlook as to the possible result of another celestial secession. 

* This liberal lack of subserviency to any creed, person, or opinion 
was partly the outcome of his political temperament, and Franklin 
quite agreed with the remark of the editor of the " Daily Democrat," 
" A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of public 
liberty." 

136 



FRANKLIN ON PRAYER 

his native land. He was really a sort of semi-detached 
saint, like Renan, who believed in nothing, and be gave 
full credit to the old French proverb: "Le bon Dieii 
n'est pas aussi mdchant qu'il est peint." (God is not so 
bad as he is painted.) He thought one creed as good 
as another and, for the moment, a great deal better, 
that is, till another hove in sight. Hence the last new- 
comer invariably had the inside track and met with a 
cheerful acquiescence and a radiant sympathy in all his 
views. Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics, and, accord- 
ing to Adams, "all the atheists, deists, and libertines, 
as well as the philosophers and the ladies," were re- 
ceived with great and cordial courtesy and a genial 
frame of mind in that atmosphere of endless, ubiquitous, 
and unchanging religious toleration in which he ever 
serenely and complacently floated, like Saturn in his 
rings, a centre of mild and steadfast light. The result 
was that they all left in a state of limpid, beatific 
refreshment, suggesting hypnotism, — feeling more con- 
firmed than ever before in their various idiosyncrasies 
and with no sense of spiritual indigestion. Not a few 
took with them an aroma of sanctity, as it were, the 
outward effluence, the overflow, of that abundant com- 
placency which had radiated, like a nimbus, from their 
host, who, as a man of the world, had received each 
and all with that seductive and saponaceous smile which 
gleamed, like heat-lightning, over cheeks so sleek and 
smooth that they rarely knew a razor, and with the 
oily and flattering utterance, "de cette fine»langue 
dorde, " so peculiarly his own. It was a modern philo- 
sophic Pentecost begotten of one tongue. 

Prayer as a means of grace certainly found little 
favor with Franklin. Early in 1745 he wrote to his 
brother John in Boston in regard to the Louisburg 
expedition : — 

137 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

" But some seem to think forts are as easy taken as snuff. 
Father Moody's prayers look tolerably modest. You 
have a fast and prayer day for that purpose, in which I 
compute five hundred thousand petitions were offered uji 
to the same effect in Xew England, which, added to the 
petitions of every family morning and evening and multi- 
plied by the number of days since January 2oth, make 
45 millions of prayers, which set against the prayers of a 
few priests in the garrison to the Virgin Mary give a vast 
balance in your favor. If you do not succeed, I fear I shall 
have but an indifferent idea of the worth of Presbyterian 
prayers in such cases, as long as I live." 

These words must have seemed, but the natural utter- 
ance of that shrewd and enterprising brother, who in 
his early childhood had suggested to their common 
parent the wisdom of saying one comprehensive grace 
over the whole contents of the winter's pork barrel, 
when it was first opened, and thus, as it were, killing 
many birds with one stone. 

Louisburg was captured on the 17th of June, 1745. 
After its second capture, in 1758, Franklin wrote to 
Mrs. Mecom from London and offered a latent and 
indirect recognition of the efficacy of the prayer element 
on the first occasion, but tones it down by a sarcastic 
slur, which probably took all the life even from that 
concession: "I congratulate you on the conquest of 
Cape Breton, and hope as your people took it by pray- 
ing the first time, you may now pray that it may never 
be given up again, which you forgot." 

Prayer in those days was far more in the ascendant 
than now. That was certainly a prayerful age in New 
England, and its people were conscious of the close 
vicinity of things invisible in a way of which we have 
no idea. While both ministers and flocks were " bat- 
tering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer," to 

138 



CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG 

; induce the Lord to take their side, Franklin must have 
stood out in high relief against this fervent and raptur- 
ous background as a scarlet sinner indeed, whom no 
amount of intercession could ever save from the final 
doom of divine ^yrath. AVhen this "wonder-working 
Providence for New England " was fully accomplished, 
so long as the Lord gave them " enlargement to praise 
him," with their forty-five millions of prayers, how 
could they think of anything else? Compared with 
these celestial aids, the clergy naturally attached but 
little importance to the fifteen thousand shot and shell 
that Pe]Dperell poured into the enemy, or to the barrels 
of New England rum which the soldiers poured into 
themselves, that they might "endure to the end." As 
Major-General Roger Wolcott ^ wrote : " But why do I 
speak of men? 'tis God has done it and the praise 
belongs to him alone; God hearing the prayers of his 
people." So the Rev. Charles Chauncey said in his 
Thanksgiving sermon, " It was owing to the extraordi- 
n&ry favor of Providence that the enemy so soon after 
our landing forsook their Grand Battery, allowing us 
to enter and take possession of it without the least 
opposition." To quote the Rev. Mr. Prince of the 
South Church, "But yet a wonder it was to see that 
those who were venturing into the danger seemed to be 
fullest of trust in God and courage. Many filled their 
vessels with prayer and away they sailed." 

1 " "Wolcott's high station, bravery in war, 
Adds to his fame distinction from afar, 
Leading his cohort from Connecticut 
With martial state and moving in his lot, 
Appears sedate in mind, unshaken stood, 
Zealous of 's churches, Col'nies, and his country's good, 
Intrepid moves, -with all in station high, 
Constrains the Gallics from their walls to fly." 
139 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

No wonder that the ]\Iuse, inspired by the contagiou> 
fever of her environment, exultingly burst forth, — 

" "When all is said and all that has been done 
On this bright theme of taking Cape Breton, 
It 's God alone the victory has -won, 
Who smiled upon each motion, gave success 
To English arms, our foes thus to suppress." ^ 

In face of all this universal hallelujah and gloria in 
excelsis, it required not a little courage and self-control 
for Franklin to stand to his solitary, unorthodox gun ■ 
and to fire it oif with such serene aplomb, even in sight I 
of no one but his own brother. I 

Franklin was past praying for after he was ten years I 
old, though he did not lack on occasion certain views 
of a decidedly practical nature as to the divine-petitional 
theory, and as to the means of exacting for it at least an 
inferential deference. During his famous campaign in 
1756, for the protection of the frontiers of Pennsylvania 
against the French and Indians, Colonel Franklin had 
"a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty," as he 
tells us in his Autobiography, " who complained to me 
that the men did not generally attend his prayers and 
expositions." The sensible colonel's quick instincts de- 
tected a complete cure for the trouble. To shorten a 
long story, the men were entitled to a gill of rum a day, 
half in the morning and half at night. Franklin made 
the chaplain steward of the rum, and suggested that it 
should be distributed after the morning and evening 
service on the principle of no prayers, no rum. This 

1 It was generally admitted even in England that " Cape Breton 
was won by prayer," and Cave in the " Gentleman's Magazine " of 
February, 1748, — for " the devils also believe and tremble," — gives 
copious extracts from Mr. Prince's "Thanksgiving Sermon." He 
most certainly would not have done this unless he had had good 
reason to think that the majority of his readers were with him. 

140 



POLLY BAKER 

worked to a charm. The men proved excellent church- 
goers, and good Mr. Beatty was refreshed in his inner 
man by seeing them "walk after the spirit." Thus 
Satan was circumvented and "hoist with his own 
petar" thanks to Franklin's abnormal sagacity. We 
doubt if Colonel Gibbon with all his learning would 
have equalled the wisdom of Colonel Franklin, if he 
had been confronted by a similar emergency. 

The publication of the story of "Polly Baker," to 
which I have incidentally referred, with all its plausible 
[and ingenious array of circumstances, was an ethical 
, calamity of Franklin's native State, and its rapid and 
popular welcome, both in England and on the Conti- 
nent, which was like that of "Gulliver's Travels," or 
"Robinson Crusoe," soon brought all New England 
I into disrepute in the minds of respectable people. It 
tended to demoralize every one who read it, and to 
degrade all existing institutions. It certainly did its 
part, with the aid of Abb^ Raynal and of his co-laborer, 
Diderot, who contributed a large share thereof, towards 
bringing about the French Revolution, since the Abba's 
voluminous work ^ in which it was published, in 1770, 

1 Histoire Philosophique et Politique des i;tablissements et du 
Commerce des Europuens dans les deux Indes. Par Guillaume- 
Thomas Raynal. Paris, 1770. 

" La Harpe says that Diderot wrote the half of it; and that though 
Raynal was really a better man than Diderot, yet that he, Diderot, 
Rousseau, Voltaire, and Helvetius were among the most powerful 
prime movers of the French Revolution. " J'ai lu," says Barbier, 
" cette histoire politique, qu'on attribue avec raison h. divers auteurs. 
Ces Messieurs declament plus qu'ils ne recontent; et ce livre est 
moins une histoire qu'une compilation bardie and irreligieuse de tout 
de qu'ont dit les voyageurs." — The Library Companion. By Rev. 
T. F. DiBDiN, 1824, Part 2, p. 410. 

A translation of this work, done by J, O. Justamond, was pub- 
lished by Franklin's intimate friend, William Strahan, in 1788. The 
following quotation will serve as a proof of the vogue at that time 
attained by " Polly Baker " in England: — 

141 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

had an immense vogue from its first advent, and ;.. 
soon as it had been ordered to be burnt by the Parlia- 
ment of Paris by the public executioner, and its authdi 
had fled for his life, it speedily acquired all the jjopular- 
ity of forbidden fruit and was translated into evej\ 
European language, and even into Spanish. Wherevt i 
it went, " Polly Baker " went with it, and her enticinc,' 
and witty narrative seemed to fit Raynal's radical au- 
dacities and risq^ies speculations like a glove, and was 
as much at home as an additional and novel figure in a 
Gobelin tapestry illustrating some scene from Ovid. No 
wonder that the liberal and radical abbe gave it a! 
cordial welcome and regarded it as the evangel of a ' 
new era. The incident was one of those "morceaux 
agr^ables et dans le gout romanesque " which the 
unscrupulous author was wont to offer to his female 
patrons. Certainly, he could have tendered to his 
French readers of that sex nothing more spirituelle 
than the first few words of the shrewd though hapless 
Polly's appeal to her judges: " Je suis une fille pauvre, 
infortun^e, qui, pouvant a peine gagner ma subsistance, 
n'a pas le moyen de payer des avocats pour plaider ma 
cause." Even Voltaire in his happiest vein never 
surpassed this. 

Of this work of the Abb^ Raynal few now living 
have ever heard, or if they have heard of it, now possess 
more than a vague idea of its former fame. Shrouded 
in the dark and dusty oblivion of over a century, none 
would in this age imagine that once it had a popularity 
like that of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and, like it, afforded 
the necessary pabulum for the mental cravings of a 

" The author here introduces the story of Polly Baker. He gives 
the speech she is said to liave made on this occasion at full length. 
But as t?iis speech is in the hands of every English reader, the translator 
has judged it unnecessary to swell his translation with it." 

142 



ABBE RAYNAL 

whole generation of humanity. It was then the pioneer 
of an impending crisis, though now it has no more 
signiticance than the skeleton of a huge brontosaurus, 
or thunder-reptile, entombed in Jurassic rocks. As 
Michelet says in his "Histoire de France au Dix- 
huitieme Siecle," 18G7, — 

"All had in mind, since 1770, the book of Eaynal, so 
long forgotten, but so powerful then, which for twenty 
years was the Bible of two worlds. In the recesses of the 
Indies, and of the Antilles, mankind devoured Eaynal. 
Toussaint Louverture, already then 29 years of age, learned 
it by heart, with the Old Testament. Bernardin de Saint- 
Pierre was inspired by it in the Isle de France. The 
American Franklin, 'si fin et si sagace,' rested all his hope 
in the country of Eaynal." 

When Napoleon was a young lieutenant of artillery 
and full of literary aspirations, the Abbd Raynal was 
his forlorn hope and the nucleus of an intense wonder 
and respect. He sought his approval, craved his advice, 
and to him addressed the first draft of his history 
of Corsica in the shape of letters. The abbd, however, 
had not a prescient soul, and the future was hidden 
from his egotistic self-conceit and arrogant assumption. 

It was to Cave, the publisher of the "Gentleman's 
Magazine," that the maleficent mission in Europe of 
"Polly Baker" was chiefly due, and he it was who 
started it in vol. xvii. April, 1747, p. 175.^ No trace 
of its earlier advent anywhere can now be found. 

^ "The Speech of Miss Polly Baker before a Court of Judicature 
at Connecticut near Boston in New England ; where she was pre- 
sented the fifth time for having a bastard child ; which influenced the 
Court to dispense with her punishment and induced one of the 
Judges to marry her the next day by whom she has had fifteen 
children." 

The words, " at Connecticut near Boston " do not appear in any 
American copy, but must have been added by Cave, probably to give 
a greater air of reality to the fable. 

143 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIOnXS 

Unfortunately, there are none but tlie vaguest data 
to aid in the quest for the time and place when " Polly 
Baker " first dawned upon the world. These are con- 
tained in the following ten words from Franklin, when 
he gleefully explained the actual source of the story: 
"When I was a printer and editor of a newspaper." 
The newspaper must have been the "Pennsylvania 
Gazette " of which Franklin had been sole editor and 
proprietor since the year 1729, — eighteen years, — 
when the fable appeared in the "Gentleman's Maga- 
zine." I have not only had a thorough examination 
made of all the numbers of the "Gazette" now in 
Philadelphia without success, but also of those at 
Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, where the file 
of the paper is the most complete of all, though some 
numbers are missing and will probably never be found 
in spite of the persistent efforts of Mr. Hildeburn for 
years to secure them. None of the eminent Franklin 
specialists, like Messrs. Ford, Bigelow, McMasters, 
Fisher, and others, have ever seen the notorious Polly 
in her cradle, and the " Gentleman's Magazine " must 
still hold the place of wet nurse. 

As to "the speech of Polly Baker," its author could 
never have imagined in his wildest dreams the goal it 
was destined to reach, though the devil's advocate 
could hardly have been delivered of a more plausible 
or a more eloquent plea, or of one better fitted to make 
the worse appear the better reason. It is too long to 
be quoted here, and, in fact, is hardly suited to modern 
respectability. As the zealous abbd narrates: — 

" This speech produced an affecting change in the minds 
of all the audience. She was not only acquitted of either 
penalty or corporal punishment, but her triumph was so 
complete that one of the judges married her. So superior 
is the voice of reason to all the powers of studied eloquence. 

144 



CAVE AND POLLY 

T'.ut popular prejudice has resumed its influence, whether 
it be that the representations of nature alone are often 
stifled by an attention to political advantages, or to the 
benefit of society, or that under the English government, 
where celibacy is not enjoined by religion, there is less 
excuse for an illicit commerce between the sexes than in 
those countries where the clergy, the nobility, luxury, 
poverty, and the scandalous example given by the Church 
and the Court, all concur in degrading and corrupting the 
married state and in rendering it burdensome." — Vol. vii. 
p. 244. Trans, by J. 0. Justamond, 1788. 

From Cave it received a welcome of especial warmth 
by reason of its indecency, no less than from its other 
fascinating claims, and he evidently thought it true in 
every detail. He had, of course, no way of discover- 
ing the name of the writer. In this way it befell that 
to Franklin's plausible expansion of the truth the New 
England colonies were indebted for an exploitation 
seldom witnessed in those days. As the enthusiastic 
abbd wrote: "Ce discours, qu'on entendroit sou vent 
dans nos contr^es et partout oii Ton a attach^ des id^es 
morales a des actions physiques qui n'en comportent 
point, si les femmes y avoient I'intrdpiditd de Polli 
Baker; ce discours produisit dans la Nouvelle Angleterre 
une rdv(51ation ^tonnante dans tons les esprits." 

Thanlcs to Franklin, the " intrepid Polli " achieved 
a universal notoriety that had been attained by hardly 
any other of her sex and character, except perhaps the 
woman of Samaria with her multitudinous and dubious 
husbands. New England sunned itself in her philan- 
thropic glow for many years, and the woman of New 
-England and the woman of Samaria bade fair to go down 
to posterity together, like a couplet from the Inferno, 
par noiile sororum. 

The next month after its advent in the " Gentleman's 

10 145 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Magazine," a new contributor, signing himself " William 
Smith," gave unexpected and ample confirmation of 
every statement in the narrative. 

" When I was in New England in 1745, I had the pleas- 
ure of seeing the celebrated Polly Baker, who was then, 
though near 60 years of age, a comely woman, and the wife 
of Paul Dudley, Esq., of lloxbury, about two miles from 
Boston, who marry 'd her, as it is mentioned in the papers, 
and had fifteen children by her. I send you this informa- 
tion because it has been insinuated that the speech pub- 
lished in her name was entirely fictitious ; that it could not 
be the speech of any woman (in which many females for 
different reasons concur), but was entirely the invention of 
some Templar or Garretteer, &c. &c.^ 

" I am, Sir, Yours, &c. 

" William Smith." 

Paul Dudley was Chief-Justice of the province of 
Massachusetts, He married a daughter of Col. John 
Wainwright, of Ipswich, who bore him several children, 
all of whom died in infancy, and was living some years 
after his death in 1751. It is easy to see what annoy- 
ance and disgust were caused to Judge Dudley and his 
wife when the magazine arrived with the letter of INIr. 
Smith, in which she was unscrupulously transmuted 
into Polly Baker, to say nothing of the more insulting 
insinuations in the latter part of his fabrication. The 
result was that, in July, 1748, fifteen months after the 
appearance of Smith's letter. Cave saw fit to print an 
apology, though the contradiction of the narrative was 
so tardy as to be almost superfluous, since it had done 

^ The " &c., &c." are here printed to hide the publication of de- 
tails so wilfully coarse, scandalous, false, and abusive that they are 
quite unfit to read in these days, though in Cave's unclean periodi- 
cal they seem very much at home and in keeping with their sur- 
roundings. 

146 



WILLIAM SMITH 

all the injury it was possible for it to do. What pres- 
sure was brought to bear u^pon Cave to bring about this 
crisis will never be known, probably threats of a crimi- 
nal process. It is sufficient to see that he thought it 
wise to yield with such grace as he might, though he 
never admitted that the original speech was a pure, or 
rather, an impure, invention, and that no such person 
as Polly Baker ever existed. 

The apology that Cave published would have been 
called abject and humiliating in any other person ; but 
every term is more or less relative in its meaning, and 
Cave had been accustomed to wallow in such slimy 
depths of fraud and iniquity that he had long ceased to 
regard anything as either abject or humiliating. Un- 
doubtedly, " William Smith " was as much of a myth as 
"Polly Baker," and the letter was, of course, written 
by Cave himself, since his chief success lay in fishing in 
troubled waters, and as he had already committed 
perjury at least once, he was quite equal to anytliing 
else. 

Truth to tell, the publication of the original imposture 
and its subsequent corroboration and the tardy retrac- 
tion were plainly but parts of a scheme of Cave's to 
keep the whole matter before the world and thus help 
his circulation. The result showed the wonderful and 
complete success of his nefarious design. 

The apology was as follows : — 

" "Whereas, thro' the wicked contrivance of one William 
Smith, we unwarily published in our Magazine for May, 
1747, a letter sign'd by him which we are now fully sen- 
sible contains a most groundless, vile, and injurious slander 
and imputation upon the Hon. Paul Dudley, Esq., his 
[Majesty's chief justice of the province of Massachusetts 
Bay, the principal province in New England ; and his lady, 
a person of the most unblemished reputation and remark- 

147 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

able during her whole life for her great modesty, virtue 
and other amiable qualities : 

" And whereas the said William Smith hath since ab- 
sconded, so that he cannot lawfully be punish'd for his mali- 
cious and gross abuse, we being desirous that all possible 
reparation should be made in this case, do hereby publicly 
confess our great concern that we should suffer ourselves to 
be imposed upon and become the means of publishing so 
great a calumny and ask pardon of Mr. Dudley and his 
lady for the same. 

" And whereas the said letter also contains a base and 
scandalous aspersion upon the inhabitants of the aforesaid 
province, by representing their customs in points of mar- 
riage as extremely irregular and indecent, contrary to the 
truth and to the standing laws of that province, approved 
by the King in council, we ask pardon of the said province 
for having published the same." 

It is very obvious that this pajDcr was drawn up by 
a lawyer, and that Cave was constrained to print it, or 
to pay the very heavy damages that would have been 
awarded to Hon. Paul Dudley ^ in court. The latter's 
forbearance under the circumstances was certainly mar- 
vellous and eminently Christian. 

The abb^ had the most implicit faith in Polly Baker 
and her naive appeal, all the more that it perfectly 
agreed with his own convictions and his mental temper- 
ament, which was of the iconoclastic order. He was 
therefore very sorry when told the truth of the case by 
Franklin, who for at least thirty years had suffered the 
whole farrago of ingenious tarradiddle to ravage the 
world and disgrace New England without troubling 
himself to contradict it. 

^ Hon. Paul Dudley was the founder of the Dudleian Lectures on 
Natural Religion, and other kindred subjects, which still continue to 
offer annually their eloquent and bewitching charms to the students 
of Harvard. 

148 



FRANKLIN AND DEANE 

" The Doctor and Silas Deane were in conversation one 
day at Passy on the numerous errors in the Abbe's * His- 
toire des deux Indes,' when he happened to step in. After 
the usual salutations, Silas Deane said to him, * The Doctor 
and myself, Abbe, were just speaking of the errors in fact 
into which you have been led in your history.' ' Oh, no. 
Sir,' said the Abbd, 'that is impossible. I took the 
greatest care not to insert a single fact, for which I had 
not the most unquestionable authority.' MVhy,' says 
Deane, * there is the story of Polly Baker, and the eloquent 
apology you have put into her mouth, when brought before 
a court of Massachusetts to suffer punishment under a law 
which you cite, for having a bastard. I know there never 
was such a law in Massachusetts.' * Be assured,' said 
the Abbe, * you are mistaken, and that that is a true story. 
I do not immediately recollect indeed the particular informa- 
tion on which I quote it ; but I am certain that I had for 
it unquestionable authority.' Dr. Franklin, who had been 
for some time shaking with unrestrained laughter at the 
Abbe's confidence in his authority for that tale, said, ' I 
will tell you, Abbe, the origin of that story. When I 
was a printer and editor of a newspaper, we were some- 
times slack of news, and, to amuse our customers, I 
used to fill up our vacant columns with anecdotes and 
fables and fancies of my own, and this of Polly Baker is a 
story of my making on one of these occasions.' The Abbe, 
without the least disconcert, exclaimed with a laugh, ' Oh, 
very well, Doctor, I had rather relate your stories than 
other men's truths.' " — The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 
by H. A. Washington, 1854, vol. viii. p. 501. 

It may here be said that the radical abbd did not 
remove the story from his work, even after its origin 
had been revealed to him. It was still asserting itself 
in the last edition issued. 

If it had not been for Franklin himself and his exult- 
ant acknowledgment of authorship in the above inter- 

149 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

view with the Ahh6 RajTial, its origin could never have 
been traced with certainty to any one. 

This story was printed by the notorious infidel, Peter 
Annet, in his pamphlet entitled "Social bliss consid- 
ered ; in marriage and divorce. . . . Containing things 
necessary to be known by all that seek mutual felicity 
and are ripe for the enjoyment of it. With the speech 
of Miss Polly Baker; and notes thereon." This was 
published in 1749 and was an argument in favor of 
unlimited divorce. (V. Halkett and Laing's Diet, of 
Anon, and Pseudon. Literature. Vol. 3, 1885.) 

Annet has a score and more of comments on Polly's 
speech, the last of which is as follows : " This Speech is 
beyond all statues that can be erected to eternize her 
memory, which demonstrates her to have been a woman 
of excellent Sense, Vietue, and Honour, maugre all 
that may be said to the contrary." 

Of course, Polly's experience was taken from Cave's 
magazine; and for the publication of this and other 
choice selections of a similar character and for the pru- 
rient conclusions based thereon, Annet was fined, sen- 
tenced to Newgate, and forced to stand twice in the 
pillory "for propagating blasphemous, irreligious, and 
diabolical opinions." 

As the " Gentleman's Magazine " had done so much 
to supply Annet with ammunition, it seemed no more 
than fair that after his sentence the editor should plead 
in mitigation of his punishment and express a " Chris- 
tian hope that he will find mercy." See issue for Jan- 
uary, 1763. The editor avails himself of the occasion 
to state that he "holds Crime in abhorrence." "He 
doth protest too much, methinks.'' 

Allibone and Sabine both state that the work of 
Annet above mentioned was published in 1739, but 
they are not correct. 

150 



THE BIRTH OF POLLY 

As the earliest appearance of "Polly Baker" that 
can now be identified was in the " Gentleman's Maga- 
zine " for April, 1747 ; and as it is very likely that her 
first advent in America must have been certainly within 
three years before that date ; and as Franklin told the 
Abbd Raynal that he wrote the story "when I was a 
printer and editor of a newspaper;" and as the only 
newspaper to which that statement could possibly apply 
was the " Pennsylvania Gazette ; " and as the story can- 
not be found in any number of that journal for several 
years preceding its publication in the "Gentleman's 
Magazine," — the only possible inference is that, though 
Franklin may have written the speech, and probably 
did so, he certainly did not tell the abb^ the truth as 
to the circumstances under which it was first published. 

I have had a most complete and exhaustive search 
made of every contemporary joui-nal, magazine, or book 
which would be in the remotest degree likely to contain 
the advent of "Polly Baker," and that without the 
faintest gleam of suggestion, even, as to its origin. 

The tale was published in the " American Museum " 
for March, 1787, Philadelphia. The editor makes the 
comment that " This judicious address influenced the 
court to dispense with her punishment and induced one 
of the judges to marry her the next day. She ever 
afterwards supported an irreproachable character and 
had fifteen children by her husband. 

"N. B. Another account says her name was Sarah 
Olitor." This is a fresh proof of the marvellous and 
widespread effect of Polly's address and of the tena- 
cious grasp of its sentiments upon the popular favor. 

If human testimony is ever to be relied upon, the 
proof that Franklin did write the speech of Polly 
Baker is indisputable. It is to be found in a letter to 
Robert Walsh (a well-known literary man of his day), 

151 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

from Jefferson, who writes from Monticello, Dec. 4, 
1818: "I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin within 
my own hnowleclge,''^ one of which begins thus: "The 
Doctor tokl me at Paris the two following anecdotes of 
the Abbe Raynal." The second of these is the one 
relating to "Polly Baker." ^ 

1 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, by H. A. Washington, vol. 
viii. p. 497. 

Note. — Saint Alfonso died in 1787, aged ninety-one, and was thus 
a contemporary of Franklin. His "Moral Theology" first appeared 
in 1755 and greatly increased his popularity, as it exactly suited the 
general looseness of the age. He soon became as well known and as 
much venerated as Jerome or Loyola. The Kev. Frederick W. Faber 
wrote a life of the saint, which covers no less than 1S40 pages and was 
tlie first fruits of his perversion to the Roman Catliollc Church. It 
was composed apparently in a spirit of defiance to be fired like a 
broadside at his former associates, that they might recognize his 
Jehu-like progress and his "zeal for the Lord " and the genuineness 
of his moral support. It is a vast compilation, and I never heard of 
any one tliat had reached tlie last page of its five volumes. 

Father Faber offers an illustration of the marvellous influence and 
the persuasive eloquence of Saint Alfonso. In 1755 he gave "a 
retreat," which was attended by an enormous concourse of priests 
and gentlemen, who were completely carried away by his burning 
and fervent words. "The Count d'Aquila was so touched by grace 
that hearing one of his soldiers swear by the blood of Jesus Christ, 
he condemned him to be tied to a pole three hours morning and 
evening by the hair of his head, with a gag in his mouth, for a week." 
Bunyan has much to say of " the economy of grace," but this must 
have been "grace abounding." 

Among ttie various miracles performed by Saint Alfonso, Father 
Faber minutely describes one which, so far as spontaneous generation 
goes, was closely allied to that of the loaves and fishes. In July, 
1753, the saint was " at the house of a physician, named Francis 
Mari," where, by his influence, thirty-two persons were abundantly 
fed on eight pounds of meat, and "a considerable quantity re- 
mained." . , . "The pieces became visibly larger as they were cut- 
ting it in the kitchen, and Mari afterwards attested that the meat had 
increased at least sevenfold." Vol. ii., chap. 38. Naturally Saint 
Alfonso is never mentioned north of the Tweed, as the Scotch would 
naturally feel much hurt at this essential replica of their own national 
marvel. 

152 



Part IV 

Adams and the Great Seal of the United States. — The Committee 
thereon and its Action. — Du Simitierc and his Sketches. — De- 
signs proposed by Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin. — Hengist 
and Horsa. — Moses and his Early Domination. — Moses in 
Massachusetts. — Moses and Adams. — John Quincy Adams and 
Moses. — Randolph of Roanoke and the Bible. — John Quincy 
Adams on Expansion. — The Pilgrim Fathers and the Swine. — 
Senator Depew and the American Hog. — The Swine of New 
England. — Pork and Beans. 

It will have been noticed that the members selected 
for the preparation of a seal were the three first named 
of the five who had already so gladly and so amply re- 
sponded when the country in its perils sought to sum- 
mon to its aid the most talented, the bravest, and the 
most patriotic of its sons. Surely one might well infer 
that no stronger proof could have been offered of the 
importance attached by the Continental Congress to this 
particular phase of its new duties than the choice of 
three such men as Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson for 
the preparation of a seal ; nor did its whole body, able as 
were many of its members, include a trinity more illus- 
trious, or more fully equipped for the trust confided to 
them, by reason of their patriotism, intelligence, learn- 
ing, or judgment. And the wisdom of this choice 
seemed obvious, for as the seal of the new nation was 
the first embodied right to be assumed and the natural 
and becoming issue of tho national sovereignty, so it 
was to be the ever present symbol of powers asserted 
and principles guaranteed by a new and sturdy compet- 
itor. It was thus of serious import that a device should 

153 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

he secured wliicli slioiild not only be in keeping with 
these high ideals, but should be of such artistic excel- 
lence, such striking merit and impressive character, as to 
lend further weight and dignity to the national decrees. 

Notwithstanding these plain and insistent claims, 
however, the proposed symbol did not receive the atten- 
tion it deserved from any of the members of Congress, 
and very little even from its committee. In fact, either 
from lack of vital interest, from the pressure of graver 
matters, or from whatever cause, neither Franklin nor 
Jefferson gave the subject much consideration, and 
Adams alone seems to have attached any importance 
thereto or to have made it a matter of personal concern. 
To liim it was indebted for an absorbing, conscientious 
devotion, and it is to him alone that we owe all the 
testimony that now exists, such as it is, in regard to the 
inception of our great seal. So far as can be judged 
from any writings now accessible, ho was the only per- 
son of prominence then living who has left us any par- 
ticular reference to this subject, and there is an utter 
lack of any other contemporary testimony as to the ideas 
or proceedings of his committee, as well as of any but 
the most meagre relics of their debates. The language 
of the following letter clearly intimates the importance 
attached by Adams to the seal, as he evidently thought 
that on its preparation the final signatures of the Decla- 
ration of Independence were largely contingent, though 
there is nothing to show that this view was shared by 
his colleagues. 

The letter was addressed to Samuel Chase from 
Philadelphia and was dated July 9, 1776. 

" You will see by this post that the river is past and the 
bridge cut away. The Declaration was yesterday publislied 
and proclaimed from the awful stage in the State House 
yard. ... As soon as an American seal is prepared, I 

154 




DESIGN BY Ul' SIMITIERE FOR A MKDAL TO COMMEMORATE 
TUE SURRENDER OF BOSTON 



SKETCH BY DU SIMITIERE 

conjecture the Declaration will be subscribed by all tbe 
members, which will give you the opportunity you wish 
for transmitting your name among the votaries of inde- 
pendence." 

A few weeks later we find this letter to Mrs. 
Adams : — 

" Philadelphia, 14 August, 1776. 

" I am put upon a committee ^ to prepare a device for a 
golden medal to commemorate the surrender of Boston to 
the American arms, and upon another to prepare a device 
for a great seal for the confederated states. There is a 
gentleman here of French extraction whose name is Du 
Simitiere, a painter by profession, whose designs are very 
ingenious and his drawings well-executed. He has been 
applied to for his advice. I waited on him yesterday and 
saw his sketches. For the medal he proposes Liberty with 
her spear and pileus, leaning on General Washington. 
The British fleet in Boston harbor with all their sterns 
towards the town, the American troops marching." 

On the opposite page the reader will find a photo- 
graphic copy of the original sketch by Du Simitiere, 
which was undoubtedly seen by Adams. It is here 
published for the first time. It is a drawing in pen and 
ink washed in with sepia, and now forms a part of the 
multifarious collections left by the artist which are pre- 
served in the Ridgway Branch of the Library Company 
of Philadelphia. For the privilege of thus using it I 
desire to present my grateful acknowledgments to its 
accomplished librarian, Mr. Bunford Samuel, to whose 
attentive kindness I am indebted for various courtesies 
of a similar nature. 

Adams does not refer to any design for more than 

1 The members of this committee were Messrs. Adams, Jay, and 
Hopkins, and they were chosen on the 25lh of March, 1776. 

155 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

one side of the Boston medal, nor is there any evidence 
that Du Simitiere ever attempted one; but another 
sketch exists among his works, which Mr. William 
Spohn Baker ^ assumes to have been intended for the 
reverse of the medal, though there is no proof thereof, 
direct or indirect. It is in pencil and very dimly out- 
lined, and I offer it here that it may enjoy the benefit 
of the doubt, the effect of the original having been 
necessarily somewhat heightened in my copy. What- 
ever else may be said of this design, it can hardly claim 
the merit of originality, for the linked colonial circle 
had already been employed, apparently at the sugges- 
tion of Franklin, on the new paper money of a few 
months previous; the radiating eye of Providence was 
an ancient and well-known emblem, and the hand with 
the dagger, another old and suggestive symbol, was in 
evidence on the ten-pound notes of South Carolina, 
issued in 1775. 

As to the obverse of the medal, the reader can judge 
for himself. 

The figures are badly drawn, their expression very 
unsatisfactory, to say the least, and the effect of the 
whole design is thin and amateurish, though, compared 
with some of the efforts of that early and struggling era, 
it almost soars into the realm of genius. There is noth- 
ing to show the opinion of the committee in regard to 
it, or the real reasons for its rejection; but as Du 
Simitiere never received any other decorative commis- 
sion from government, and as Congress finally paid him 

* "Medallion Portraits of "Washington Supplementary List pre- 
pared by William Spohn Baker, Philadelphia, 1890." This list has 
never been printed, l5Ut is still in manuscript in the Baker Collection 
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mr. Baker writes that 
" The original drawings for the obverse and reverse of this medal are 
preserved among the Du Simitiere papers in the possession of the 
Library Company of Philadelphia." 

156 




ALLEGED DESIGN FOK THE REYEBSE OF SAME MEDAL 



i 



LETTER OF ADAMS 



only thirty-two dollars^ for his labors, and that in a 
sadly depreciated currency, it is fair to infer tliat his 
artistic efforts were held in light esteem. 
But to continue our letter from Adams : — 

"For the seal he proposes the arras of the several nations 
from whence America has been peopled, as English, Scotch, 
Irish, Dutch, German, etc., each in a shield. On one side of 
them Liberty, with her pileus ; on the other a rifler in his 
uniform, with his rifle gun in one hand and his tomahawk 
in the other.'' This dress and these troops with this kind 
of armor being peculiar to America, unless the dress was 

1 Journals of Congress, Nov. 29, 17T6. " Paid P. E. Du Simitiere 
for designing, making and drawing a medal for General Washington, 
$3'2." 

The Peter Force Collection in the Library of Congress contains a 
note-book written by Du Simitiere and filled with a daily record of 
his various labors. From the following extracts, taken from its 
"List of Paintings and Drawings done," it seems clear that the artist 
had achieved a wide repute for designs of a character similar to the 
above. 

" 7ber, 177G, a drawing in Indian ink for a medal to be given geni 
Washington on the English evacuation of Boston, begun some 
time ago." 

"August, a drawing in Indian ink for the Great Seal of the State 
of Virginia in two sides of 4^ inches diameter." 

"October, a drawing in Indian ink of the broad seal of the State 
of Georgia." 

Other commissions — if such they can rightly be called — also 
are to be found for New Jersey and Delaware. 

Not very long after the above date, the barbers of Philadelphia 
were papering the walls of their shops with the promissory notes of 
the United States. 

' Facing page 154 of this volume will be foimd a copy of what was 
apparently the original sketch submitted to !Mr. Adams on this 
occasion. The design itself is now in vol. viii.. Series 5, of the Jeffer- 
son Papers in the Department of State at Washington. For the 
opportunity of presenting both this and several other sketches 
hereafter given, I desire to express my thanks to Mr, Andrew H. 
Allen, Chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library, whose cordial solici- 
tude and remarkable intelligence so many persons interested in his- 
torical research have had ample reason to appreciate. 

157 



!■ 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

known to tlie Eomans. Dr. Franklin showed me yesterday 
a book containing an account of the dresses of all the Roman 
soldiers, one of which appeared exactly like it. 

"This M. Du Simitiere is a very curious man. He has 
begun a collection of materials for a history of this revohi- 
tion. He begins with the first advices of the tea-ships. 
He cuts out of the newspapers every scrap of intelligence 
and every piece of speculation and pastes it upon clean 
paper, arranging them under the head of that state to 
which they belong, and intends to bind them up in a volume. 
He has a list of every speculation and pamphlet concerning 
independence, and another concerning forms of govern- 
ment. 

" Dr. Franklin proposes a device for a seal, Moses lifting 
up his wand and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh in his 
chariot overwhelmed with the waters. This motto : * Re 
bellion to tyrants is obedience to God.' 

" Mr. Jefferson proposed the Children of Israel in the wil- 
derness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, 
and on the back Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon chiefs, from 
whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose 
political principles and form of government we have 
assumed." ^ 

1 Jefferson and Adams in the expression of these opinions, of 
course, relied upon such information as they tlien possessed, but 
little appears in the later discoveries of history to justify their 
reasons for placing Hengist and Horsa on our seal. Both these 
chiefs are now regarded as more or less mythical. Foggy figures, 
dim and huge, they loom up athwart the historic twilight; though 
Freeman, who gave the whole subject careful study, after long 
brooding finally brought himself to allow — in a note, A toutcs 
reserves, " I see no reason to doubt the existence of Hengest." 
Further than that he cared not to commit himself, like "one 
quenched in a boggy Syrtis." 

The general trend of evidence, however, seems to show that one 
of these leaders, possibly both, did found "the first Teutonic settle- 
ment in Kent, which involved, whether by extirpation or assimila- 
tion, the utter driving out of the earlier British or Roman elements." 
For more than a century after the success of the invasion, no history 
of the new kingdom has been discovered, and we know nothing 

158 



HENGIST AND HORSA 

Franklin evidently sided with his two fellow-patriots 
in their views as to the ample blessings that flowed from 
the successful raid of those two filibustering apostles of 
freedom, for he says in his Introduction to " An Histori- 
cal Review: " "Liberty, it seems, thrives best in the 
woods. America best cultivates what Germany brought 
forth." 

In their choice of a device both Franklin and Jeffer- 

whatever of the political principles of its rulers or of our own descent 
from the people thereof, and Jefferson and his colleagues must have 
known just as little. It is quite likely, however, that the descendants 
of those invaders did have, indirectly, a powerful influence over the 
early fortunes of New England, and thence over those of our young 
republic. This has been ably and conclusively shown by Senator 
Hoar, of Massachusetts, in an address on the indebtedness of New 
England to Kent, published in the Proceedings of the American 
Antiquarian Society, April, 1895. 

" Neither was that an imimportant wassail-night, when the two 
black-browed Brothers, strongheaded, headstrong, Hengst and Horsa 
fStallion and Horse), determined on a man-hunt in Britain, the boar- 
hunt at home having got over-crowded; and so, of a few hungry 
Angles made an English nation, and planted it here, and — produced 
thee, O Reader! Of Hengst's whole campaigning scarcely half a page 
of good Narrative can now be written." — Carlyle, " On History 
again." Fraser^s Magazine, 18-33. 

Though these words were the outflashings of genius, yet in view 
of the paucity of original evidence and of later and more extended 
research, it would seem that Hengst and Horsa as "makers of an 
English nation " were somewhat too broadly projected into the do- 
main of history, and that to the conscientious student they must still 
continue to figure merely as mystic, gigantic Brocken spectres, ever 
on the verge of almost total dissolution, being at best but the crude 
and chimerical offspring of credulous and omnivorous chroniclers, 
whose brains were apparently located in their solar plexus and who 
were glad to jump at marvellous conclusions. 

Liberty often "moves in a mysterious way her wonders to per- 
form," and many inexplicable phenomena may well be looked for at 
her hands; but if it had been revealed to Hengist and Horsa that 
the final outcome of their performances was to be the founding of a 
democracy on the other side of the Atlantic for the propagation of 
anti-expansionists, like Senator Hoar and his adherents, they would 
doubtless have been torn by a variety of conflictmg emotions. 

159 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

son gave very natural expression to a feeling that per- 
vaded all their countrymen and was deeply infused into 
every class, from the highest to the lowest. As in the 
estimation of our forefathers, the makers of New Eng- 
land, so with the makers of the United States, Moses 
towered high, like a mighty column resting on dread 
foundations, laid by divine and all-wise Omnipotence 
and never to be shaken. Hence men of every religious 
type regarded him as a demigod and the mightiest repre- 
sentative of the Deity that had ever been seen by man. 
Really it is no exaggeration to state that Moses had 
then become a more dominant power and a more vital 
presence, and was more venerated, than Christ himself.^ 
He was far more often mentioned and quoted and 
thought of, and was regarded as a more available symbol 

^ The influence of Moses among the reading and tlilnking men of 
the middle of the eigliteenth century was largely increased by the 
domineering and arrogant supremacy of his patron, Bishop War- 
burton, — " Lord paramount in all the realms of science " — whose 
paradoxical encyclopaedia, "The Divine Legation of Moses," swept 
over all Christendom with the force of a cyclone, and that in spite of 
the efforts of Newton, Voltaire, Bolingbroke, and other great intellects 
to explain the illustrious lawgiver away. Though the bishop strove 
to show that when, as Christ said, " Moses wrote of me," Moses did 
not know what he was about, and that the great lawgiver proved his 
divine legation by omitting all reference to what should have been 
its supremely essential and life-giving element, yet in that day no 
one could see the actual result of the bishop's conclusions, by reason 
of the smoky cloud of erudition that hid them, and Moses for the 
time being held his own, and a great deal more. 

Even Lord Shaftesbury drew the line at Moses and regarded him 
as " the only heart which had the character of being after the pat- 
tern of the Almighty's." His Lordship did not find in the writings 
of Moses the " profusion of humorous images and jocular wit " 
which he detected in Job and in the Psalms; nor did he discern 
therein "the merry devotion of David," nor "the sharp, humorous 
repartees of Christ," nor, in short, any of the facetious jeux d' esprit 
which to his mind enlightened the jovial pages of Jeremiah, Isaiah, 
and the other prophets, and revealed " the highest care taken by its 
original founders to exhilarate religion." 

160 



MOSES AND BUNYAN 

of encouragement to the good and of terror to evil-doers ; 
and when the Herculean lawgiver thrice knocked down 
Faithful and laid him for dead in the very presence of 
Christ himself, as narrated by Bunyan, "because of his 
secret inclining to Adam the first," lie was generally 
admitted to have served him right. ^ It can thus only 
be thought very natural that both Franklin and Jeffer- 
son should have striven to identify the young republic 
with a figure so grand and so powerful and so majesti- 
cally endowed with every attribute that history, anti- 
quity, religion, law, or learning could bestow. 

As a Bostonian, Franklin ^ inhaled this faith with his 

1 I vei^ture to add here in transitu that this was not the first time 
Moses had made himself disagreeable to Faithful. Farther on the 
latter says, "'Twas he that came to me when I dwelt securely at 
home and told me he would burn my house over my head if I stayed 
tliere." Nothing was then intimated as to any " secret inclining 
to Adam the first," and the real reason for this continual aversion 
undoubtedly was that Faithful belonged to the New Eegime, and 
Moses would naturally conceive a distaste for him because its teach- 
ings were exactly the opposite of the Old Eegime, of which he was 
the head. There was much of the Hercules in Moses, from Bunyan's 
point of view, wliich was well supported by the facts of his life, and by 
his narrative of the Retreat of the Six Hundred Thousand, compared 
with which Xenophon's famous campaign was a mere fleeting and 
iridescent soap-bubble. 

Bunyan somehow contrived to acquire more information about 
the true Moses and his appurtenances than any one else, as appears 
from his homely and quaint quartette : — 

" This Moses was a fair and comely man ; 
His wife a swarthy Ethiopian ; 
Nor did his Milk-white Bosom Change her Skin; 
She came out thence as black as she went in." 

Tennyson wrote, 

"Swarth Moses by the Coptic sea," 

which suggests a different authority from that consulted by his rival. 
However, it matters little, "Nimium ne crede colori," as Corydon 
says. 

2 In 17S7 Joel Barlow published a poem called •' The Vision of 
Columbus." It contains a tribute to Franklin, which is full of 

11 161 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

natal breath. It had a local color and interest, like his 
soap, and his loyalty to it never ceased, or even wavered. 
In one of the very last works of his life, when he was 
doing his best with failing powers to transmit the family 
soap to a remote posterity, he asserts his l^elief that " a 
constitution was framed for the Jews by the Deity him- 
self," and that "the Supreme Being personally delivered 
to his chosen servant, Moses, in presence of the whole 
nation, a constitution and code of laws for their observ- 
ance." This was apropos of "The Conduct of the Anti- 
Federalists in 1787." And the very use of such an 
example to invigorate his argument showed plainly that 
the wise and clear-headed Franklin still knew the public 
mind, and his own as well, and that, like Moses him- 
self, though his years were many, " his eye was not dim 
nor his natural force abated." 

It was especially in New England that this venera- 
tion for Moses prevailed from the first years of its 
history. Though it has been clearly proved ^ that our 
Puritan ancestors did not deduce their first code of 
laws "almost literally from the Books of Moses," yet 
there is plenty of evidence that they went as far as 
they dared in that direction. As Adams wrote, 

Mosaic suggestion and reads as if it were far more likely to have been 
inspired by the image of the great lawgiver as a high potential ex- 
plosive on Mount Sinai than by any traits of the peaceful and con- 
ciliatory philosopher. 

" See on yon darkening height bold Franklin stand, 
Heaven's awful thunders rolling o'er his head ; 
Convolving clouds the billowy skies deform, 
And forky flames emblaze the blackening storm; 
See the descending streams around him burn, 
Glance on his rod and with his guidance turn; 
He bids conflicting heavens their blasts expire, 
Curbs the fierce blaze and holds the imprisoned fire." 

1 Remarks on the Early Laws of Massachusetts Bay, by F. C. 
Gray, LL.D. 

162 



MOSAIC LAWS 

" Their greatest concern was to establish a government 
consistent with the scriptures."^ 

We learn from the " Colonial Records of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay," that as far back as May, 1636, "The 
Governor, the Deputy Governor, Thomas Dudley, John 
Haynes, Richard Bellingham, Esquires, Mr. Cotton, 
Mr. Peters, and Mr. Shepherd are entreated to make a 
draught of laws agreeable to the word of God, which 
may be the Fundamentals of this Commonwealth, and 
to present the same to the next General Court, and it is 
ordered that in the meantime the magistrates and their 
associates shall proceed in the Courts to hear and de- 
termine all causes according to the laws now established, 
and where there is no law, then as near the laws of God 
as they can." 

The only outcome of this, according to Winthrop's 
Journal, seems to have been tliat in December of that 
same year, " Mr. Cotton, being requested by the General 
Court with some other ministers to assist some of the 
magistrates in compiling a body of fundamental laws, 
did, this Court, present a copy of Moses his judicials, 
compiled in an exact method, which were taken into 
further consideration till the next General Court." 
(Journal, p. 202.) 

In the year 1642 " Mr. Charles Chauncey " (afterwards 
President of Harvard College and described by Cotton 
Mather in the days when Cotton was king, as "another 
Elijah shedding his benign influence over the school of 
the prophets " — like President Eliot), in reply to cer- 
tain queries propounded by Gov. William Bradford, re- 
plied, with other assertions : — 

1 Carlyle said in his Inaugural Address at Edinburgh in 186fi, 
" They wanted to make the nation altogether conformable to the 
Hebrew Bible, which they, and all men, understood to be the exact 
transcript of the Will of God." 

163 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

" Ans. The answer unto this I will lay downe (as God 
shall directe by his word and spirite) in these following 
conclusions : (1) That ye judicials of Moyses, that are 
appendances to ye morall law, & grounded on ye law of 
nature, or ye decalogue, are iiiiutable, and ppetuall, 
wch all orthodox devines acknowledge ; see ye authors 
following. Luther, Tom. &c. " (Bradford's History 
of Plimouth Plantation, p. 468.) 

Even the Massachusetts " Body of Liberties " estab- 
lished by the General Court in December, 1641, adopted 
the law of Moses in various forms, especially in section 
eighty-one, which gives the eldest son a double portion ' 
in accordance with Deuteronomy, chap. xxi. 17. 

Apropos of this reference to the Mosaic law, it may 
be safely asserted that if any one of the Mosaic precepts 
is more worthy than any other to be cited as utterly 
absurd, ridiculous, impracticable, superfluous, fantastic, 
and perfectly void of any sign of divine or omniscient 
origin, it is that contained in the fifteenth, sixteenth, 
and seventeenth verses of the twenty-first chapter of 
Deuteronomy. It is the result of a far-fetched effort to 
provide for circumstances that would never be likely, or 
even possible to exist, and which, if they did exist, 
ouQ-ht not to be suffered, and still less to be admitted ks 
existing by one claiming to speak from celestial revela- 
tion. The whole dictate is unjust, and unnatural and 
also based on a complete ignorance of the ordinary re- 
sults of marriage and of the birth of children, and if 
sought to be carried into execution as a legal enactment, 
would be utterly debasing and demoralizing in its effects, 
as has, in fact, been already proved. 

What I have said in regard to Franklin is equally 

1 Especial attention is called to this subject by Hon. George F. 
Hoar, Senator from Massachusetts, in the address before mentioned 
on page 159. 

164 



ADAMS AND MOSES 

true concerning Adams, and the INIosaic grip was as tena- 
cious upon the one as upon the other, like that of the 
Old Man of the Sea upon Sindbad the Sailor. As 
Adams wrote to his son, John Quincy, IMoses was "one 
whom the Lord knew face to face," and to whom "tlie 
law of the Hebrews was delivered by the Creator of the 
world," and though he did not believe in the divinity 
of Christ, he did put implicit faith in the Pentateuch as 
a revelation from on high, including the account of the 
creation and the narrative by Moses of his own death and 
the other works attributed to him during his decease.^ 
As Edward Everett wrote of him in 1848, "he enter- 
tained an almost obsolete reverence for sacred things." 
To tell the truth, Adams, like his colleagues, made 
himself solid with IMoses at the beginning and so con- 
tinued to the end, and apparently he found no more 
certain basis for his faith to rest on. The great vice- 
regent of heaven was never far from his thoughts, and 
when his pious, pugnacious, and patriotic Philadelphia 
pastor, Ilev. Mv. Duffield, preached on this subject, he 
found no more appreciative auditor than Adams, his 
serious-minded parishioner, who, reflecting on his own 
prominent position and conscientious responsibility, 
asked, " Is it not a saying of IMoses, ' Who am I that I 
should go in and out before this great people ? ' " So 
potent was this feeling that he apparently never got 

^ Even at this period, when Moses is generally regarded as an 
extinct volcano, there are those who resent the disparaging way in 
v.'hich his memoirs were treated by the irreverent Bishop of Natal. 
As the Archbishop of Canterbury indignantly exclaimed, apropos of 
Colenso, 

" Who filled his soul with carnal pride? 
AVho made him say that Moses lied 
About the little hare's inside? 
The devil! " 

Dean Stanley was very brave in 18G0 when he took his plucky 
stand in behalf of Colenso, and said to the exasperated clergy la 

1G5 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

any farther tlian the Pentateuch and the Okl Dispensa- 
tion, thou<^h willing, however, to admit that religion, as 
he observed, was "a noble infirmity and no peculiar 
derogation from the character of the Puritans." In his 
own career he followed his example as nearly as he con- 
scientiously could, and as he was unable to 'become a 
priest, from his contempt for " the ridiculous fancies of 
sanctified effluvia from episcopal fingers," and for "all 
the creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and whole 
cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion 
encumbered with in these days," as he wrote, he chose 
the next best course and decided to become a lawgiver. 
Like Moses, "the patriot fierce," as Newman calls him, 
he was a good fighter, though, unlike him, he ha 
not "killed his man," and would infallibly have been 
soldier, if he could have secured the necessary interes 
and patronage ; but the result was decidedly in his and 
our favor, for it offered a fresh proof that " peace hath 
her victories no less renowned than war." 

This profound and innate reverence for Moses, who 
was the greatest imperialist and expansionist of his age, 
continued to assert itself in the Adams family for two 
generations after John Adams' decease, and was largely 
inherited by John Quincy Adams. As late as the year 
1846, in the long and spirited debate in the 29th Con- 
gress on the Oregon Question and the famous "fifty- 
four forty, or fight," the latter contrived to draw Moses 
into the discussion and to commit him irretrievably to 
our "manifest destiny" of unlimited expansion by quot- 
ing from his account of the creation. This precedent 
gave great comfort both to himself and to the other 

Convocation: "I am not unwilling to take my place with Gregory 
of Nyssa, with Jerome, and with Atlianasius. But in that same 
goodly company I shall find the despised and rejected Bishop of 
Natal." 

166 



i 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

expansionists, and none the less that they could hardly 
have expected efficient aid from the great lawgiver. 
They had a sincere respect for Adams, and though few 
of the other members had ever read the Mosaic law- 
books, and still fewer knew anything of their contents, 
they were well aware that Adams could n't tell a lie, any 
more than George Washington, though it often appears 
to be in the nature of a Providential dispensation and is 
"a very present help in time of trouble," as it was so 
often regarded under the Old Dispensation. 

At a later staofe in the debate Adams alluded in a 
vague, half-hearted fashion to the Biblical knowledge 
of his fellow members, and evidently sought to take as 
optimistic a view thereof as possible, when he said: "I 
suppose the members of this house generally do believe 
the book, because I see them going up to that Chair and 
taking their oaths upon it — and some of them kissing 
it, in token, as I suppose, of their respect for it." 

The pungent, sarcastic, and irrepressible Randolph of 
Roanoke, who had the genuine Adams faculty for get- 
ting at the truth about his fellow-men and putting it 
where it would do most good, also, like Adams, took 
occasion to air his views concerning the Biblical knowl- 
edge of his associates in Congress during the debate on 
the "Florida Canal," in February, 1826. 

" Mr. Randolph said, ' What are the words of the 
Constitution ? ' He was ver}^ sorry to say that this book 
(holding up the Constitution) was so seldom resorted to. 
It was like the Bible, in which we kept receipts, deeds, 
etc., and never looked into except when we happen to 
want them ; and even then we are so little in the habit 
of using it, we forget where they are mislaid." (National 
Intelligencer, Feb. 16, 1826.) 

Verily, truth is a rara avis, like the tutissimus this 
favored of Phoebus Apollo and praised by Ovid, and one 

167 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

very seldom comes across it. There are few Randolphs 
and Adamses nowadays to reveal " the truth, the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth " about their fellow-men. 
On the 9th of February, 184G, the House sitting in 
Committee of the Whole, Mr. Adams remarked:^ "So 
much had been said and with so much ability on the 
question of title, that he believed it would be almost a 
Avaste of time in him to say anything more about it; 
unless the Chairman had on the table before him a little 
hook that the Speaker sometimes employed in adminis- 
tering the solemnity of an oath to members elect before 
they were admitted to seats in that Hall. If that book 
was there, he would thank the Clerk to read from it 
what he considered as the foundation of our title to 
Oregon. If he would turn to the 26th, 27th, and 28th 
verses of the first chapter of Genesis, the committee 
would see what Mr. A. considered the foundation of the 
title of the United States to the Oregon territory." 
The clerk read as follows : — 

"2G. And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
that creepeth upon the earth. 

" 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image 
of God created he him : male and female created he them. 

"28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 
Be fruitful and multiply,^ and replenish the earth and sub- 

1 See "National Intelligencer" of Febrnary 10. 

2 This felicitous quotation of the patriotic and virtuous Adams 
was precisely the one employed by Polly Baker to justify her own 
eccentric conduct, which she termed " the duty of the first and great 
command of Nature and of Nature's God ' Increase and Multiply ; ' a 
duty from the steady performance of which nothing has been able to 
deter me, but for its sake I have hazarded the loss of the public 
esteem and have frequently endured public disgrace and punishment, 

168 



THE IMPERIAL PROPHET 

due it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and 
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon the earth." 

"That," said Mr. Adams, "in my judgment is the 
foundation of our title to Oregon and of all the title wfe 
have to any of the territory -sve possess. It is the founda- 
tion of the title by which you, sir, occupy that chair, and 
by which we are now called upon to occupy Oregon." 

With these words the speaker struck a most exalted 
and sympathetic note, which carried conviction to the 
very heart of hearts of each patriotic hearer, — a note 
that has vibrated ever since and will still continue to 
vibrate to the ends of the earth, till it awakens a 
responsive echo in every breast. Plainly this has been 
our mission from the first, and Adams did well when he 
undertook to show that Moses, like St. Andrews, had 
"hitched his wagon to a star" and was in very truth a 
real bona fide prophet. And so thinking, Adams felt a 
conclusive intuition that when Moses referred to " the 
fish of the sea," he meant "the sacred cod of Massachu- 
setts," and that he had the American eagle in his pro- 
phetic soul when he spoke of "the fowl of the air." 
Q. E. D. If he had not been John Quincy Adams, of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he would wil- 
lingly have been Moses, with all his scientific discrepan- 
cies and inexplicabilities.^ 

and therefore ought, in my humble opinion, instead of a whipping, to 
have a statue erected to my memory," just as Annet thought. 

1 This enterprising use of Moses as an auxiliary was a bold coxip 
d'^lat, and it is mentioned by Dr. Von Hoist in his " Constitutional 
and Political History of the United States " vol. iii. p. 31, though he 
fails to grasp the situation or to give Adams the credit that so richly 
belongs to him. " A settlement of the controversy was as impossible 
upon this basis as upon the ground of a papal gift of the undis- 
covered parts of the world, or of the verse in Genesis which Adams 
threw into the controversey on behalf of the United States." 

Debate on the Oregon Question, Feb. 9, 184G. In reply to Mr. T. 

169 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The contemporaries of Adams had healthy, public- 
spirited, far-sighted, fundamental. Mosaic ideas on the 
subject of expansion, and were never afraid to express 
them. Chief Justice Marshall used to say, "Brother 
Story, step to the window and see if it does not look like 
rain ; " and if the reply was that the sun shone brightly, he 
would add, "All the better; for our jurisdiction extends 
over so large a territory that the doctrine of chances 
makes it certain that it must be raining somewhere."^ 
If that great man could only have foreseen how it is 
raining now in Cuba and in the Philippines, it would 
have done his soul good, as when Moses viewed the 
promised land, which he could not enter; and he would 
have been prompted to say, "Lord, now lettest thou thy 
servant depart in peace." 

It was fortunate for Adams that he died before our 

Butler King, of Georgia, Mr. Adams also observed farther on: " To 
say that the title [to the Oregon Territory] is ' clear and unquestion- 
able,' is to say that which is susceptible of two meanings, — one 
relating solely to the question of right and wrong, and the other 
relating to the opinions of others. According to the construction 
we give to ' clear and unquestionable,' and in relation to the ques- 
tion of right and wrong, I say that our title is clear and imques- 
tionable." — Appendix to the Congressional Globe, p. 465. 

1 Notwithstanding the maxim of Lord Bacon that " Judges 
ought to be more learned than witty," all, or at least the majority, of 
our great judges have possessed a considerable fund of humor and 
have been prone to look on the facetious aspect of any situation with 
much enjoyment. Even the grave and dignified Lemuel Shaw, Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
in short, on a certain occasion, when a young man, sang " Villikins 
and his Dinah," in Concert Hall, Boston, though this would, of 
course, he different from singing in a Music Hall elsewhere. 

The venerable Josiah Quincy, who kept most of his faculties un- 
dimmed to the age of ninety, at last became very long-sighted, 
though even then he was reluctant to use glasses. One day, when 
reading a document to Judge Story, he was obliged to hold it almost 
at arm's-length. At last his Honor humorously observed: "The 
time will certainly come, Mr. Quincy, when you will have to get 
either a pair of spectacles or a pair of tongs," 

170 



ADAMS AND PHILOLOGY 

present era of philological investigation had borne such 
a luxuriant harvest and thus failed to see the effects of 
the fierce light which beats from the higher criticism, 
and has enabled victorious analysis to scale the very 
heavens. He would have been greatly shocked to learn 
that after all his exploitation of Moses, the jDresumed 
author of the Pentateuch — his own and his father's ark 
of salvation — was actually a vague and anonymous 
syndicate; and that our present perversion of the 
Psalms was a sacred " trust, " and Isaiah a copartnership ; 
that Job ^ was twins at least, as has been demonstrated 

1 In these forays of science into the bowels of the Old Testament 
during the last half-century, Kuskin, as usual, has not failed to take 
a certain share, and has distinguished himself by the novelty of his 
views, at least. The two Jobs would be greatly amazed to learn that 
their book " was chiefly written and placed in the inspired volume in 
order to show the value of natural history and its power over the 
human heart." (Lectures on Architecture and Paintings. §§ 79, 80.) 
How very advanced! This utterance must have been specially in- 
tended for Ruskin's own readers, of whom he says in a letter to Dr. 
Furnivall, 29 Sept., 1878: " Not one man in 15,000 in the nineteenth 
century knows, or even can know, what any line or any word means, 
used by a great writer. For most words stand for things that are 
seen or things that are thought of, and in the nineteenth century 
there is certainly not one man in 15,000 who ever looks at anything, 
and not one in fifteen million capable of a thought." Again, how 
very advanced! 

Undoubtedly Ruskin's countrymen got their idea of the unicorn 
from Job. The creature certainly has a very spirited and realistic 
air on their coat of arms. 

"Ruskin seems to me to have the best talent iov preachm/f of all 
men now alive. He has entirely blown up the world that used to call 
itself of ' Art ' and left it in an impossible posture, uncertain whether 
on its feet at all, or on its head." 

Thus wrote Carlyle in 1862, adding, "If he could do as much for 
Political Economy (as I hope), it would be the greatest benefit 
achieved by preaching for generations past." The writer lived to 
see the fruition of his hope, for Ruskin straightway proceeded to 
treat "The Dismal Science" just as he had treated Job and the 
world of art, and when he had ended every one will admit that the 
science was even more dismal than before and that it was quite im- 

171 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

l)y Renan ; that Joshua was certainly a quintette, wliile 
Jeremiah was triplets, as conclusively proved by Prof. 
W. Robertson Smith, and, moreover, was " posthumous, 
traditional, anonymous, and generally indefinite," which 
facts may have given his prophetic Lamentations a darker 
and more dismal tone; that Samson had got so mixed 
up with Hercules, thanks to the learned and ingenious 
developments of Baur, Braun, Wietzke, Brockhausen, 
et id omne genus, that one could not be distinguished 
from the other, and it was uncertain, to tell the truth, 
whether either of them ever lived at all, any more than 
Castor and Pollux; that Daniel was "a legend" with 
no more positive identity than Saint Ignis Fatuus; 
that the episode of David and Goliath had turned out 
to be "not homogeneous," but that the latter lived a 
half-century or so after the former, which would make 
David's achievement still more marvellous, or quite im- 
practicable, since even a miracle would hardly have 
enabled him to hit Goliath at that distance, even though 



possible to tell whether it was "on its feet at all or on its head." 
Kuskin set forth his fantastic doctrines in a small volume entitled 
" Unto this last," a phrase taken from the most foolish verse of 
the most absurd of all the parables, " The Laborers in the Vinej'ard." 
Very naturally, his theory, the essence of which is "to pay both 
good and bad workmen alike," agrees perfectly with its apparent 
origin, and we can easily see how its author might have taken it into 
his head that the mission of Job was to serve as the type and fore- 
runner of Linnaeus and Cuvier. As to the parable, since it is found 
only in Saint Matthew, let us hope for the credit of Christianity, of 
human well-being, and of common sense, that it is an interpolation. 
Ruskin always had a taste for natural history, porcine and other, 
and an acute perception of its exact status among the great majority 
of his countrymen. He said on one occasion, "If an angel visited 
England, her sportsmen would be out at once with their guns to 
shoot the winged visitant," just as " Mr. Peter," climbing high 
among the Himalayas, "shot a cherubim." They would certainly 
do the same for the unicorn, if he ever should happen to stray from 
the royal preserves. 

172 



THE PILGRIMS AND THE SWINE 

he was ten feet and a half high.^ In view of this 
niitraillade of iconoclastic havoc, Adams, had he lived 
to face it, would certainly have thrown up his little 
plucky, protesting hands in the face of outraged heaven 
and exclaimed, "O Philology, what crimes have been 
committed in thy name! " 

John Adams, at a political crisis, once referred to 
the politics of New York as "among the devil's incom- 
prehensibilities," — a feature which they have retained 
to this day. Doubtless his son would have given the 
same character to the modern expose of the Old Testa- 
ment as a venerable petrifaction of incongruous fabrica- 
tions, corrupt interpolations, and unscrupulous addi- 
tions to the original text, which only shines with fitful 
lustre here and there, until even the vast and learned 
wisdom of philology is barely able to eliminate the true 
from the false. 

Notwithstanding the Mosaic domination throughout 
New England, there was one point as to which there 
was a total disagreement between the Pilgrim Fathers 
and the great lawgiver, and that was concerning the 
swine, which Moses forbade as unclean and not to be 
eaten, or even touched, " because it divideth the hoof, 
yet cheweth not the cud." Here our fathers drew the 
line and stood to their guns. Though not a Quaker was 
branded, nor a witch was hung, — sus. per col. , — nor a 
single estate inherited in Massachusetts, except in ac- 
cordance with the approved dictates of the Pentateuch, 
yet the Pilgrims saw very clearly their way to dispense 
with the porcine precepts of the Old Dispensation, and 
fought for their pork with an obstinate tenacity that de- 
fied both Leviticus and Deuteronomy together. Time 
has gradually revealed and justified their wisdom, until 
it is now apparent to all men, both here and abroad ; and 

1 Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, Kap. 7, II. § 4. 

173 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the American liog, true to liis high descent and the genu- 
ine nobility of his mission, has made his way and has be- 
come a 'persona grata at every court in Europe. It was 
not, however, until 1892 that he was admitted to the 
Legion of Honor and made his ti;iumphal entree through 
the Arc de I'Etoile, under the diplomatic escort of Mr. 
Whitelaw Reid, and thus impressed upon the antiquated 
and effete governments of the old world a further proof 
of the progress of our principles, our abounding vitality, 
our energy, our ingenuity, our pluck and obstinacy, 
and of all "the wonders in the land of Ham; " wonders 
which are now universally admitted to be largely due to 
our Pilgrim ancestry, whose sterling merits constrain the 
learning, the wit, and the wisdom of our great metropo- 
lis to assemble each year in crowds, that they may pay 
them an ample tribute as the source of those qualities 
which have done so much to make us honored, happy, 
and prosperous. Thus even the descendants of "the 
double Dutch" have been forced to acknowledge how 
neatly the Pilgrims got the start of their ancestors, and 
when the former sought to tangle them up on the shores 
of Cape Cod, how they made a good landing in spite of 
them and thus enabled the New England swine and 
New Ensfland rum to start on that career which has so 
mightily enriched our land and has done so much to 
make liberty possible, practicable, and profitable. Such 
are the contributions of New England towards the evo- 
lution of man. 

As has been said with genial and wise facetiousness 
by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, whose ubiquitous tact, 
knowledge, shrewd insight, grasp of facts, eloquence, 
and sound judgment, winged and brightened by humor, 
have given him a name that will long shine with ever 
increasing radiance, " The American hog, more than any 
other agency, has solved the problem of the farm and 

174 



THE HOG AND HIS VIRTUES 

the market. When the Western farmer would be com- 
pelled to burn his corn because the price at the seaboard 
would not bear the cost of transportation, this intelli- 
gent animal consumes the corn, chemically works it up 
into profitable pork, and then transports himself to 
market to clear the mortgage from the farm and add to 
the wealth of his country." 

The hog is not half so bad as he has been painted, 
after all, it would seem. Ruskin, whose crest is a 
boar's head, has always had a penchant for him from 
his earliest youth, as he has gladly and graphically re- 
vealed in "The State of Denmark," while his friend 
Leslie, the painter, writes to him : " Pigs are wonderful 
animals, — our English elephant, I think, as to mental 
capacity. They always have an interest to me above 
other edible live stock. . . . Pigs are such cheerful 
creatures at sea that, as an old soft-hearted seaman once 
remarked, you get too partial towards them and feel 
after dinner as though you had eaten an old messmate." 
Even Cardinal Newman has a good word for him and 
makes Jucundus in his soliloquy say, " I 've often 
thought the hog is the only really wise animal. We 
should be happier if we were all hogs. Hogs keep the 
end of life steadily in view." Mr. Senator Depew was 
quite correct as to the creature's intelligence, and what 
with the support of Franklin, Lincoln, Leslie, Ruskin, 
Lamb, Newman, and the Pilgrims, the pig can almost 
stand "erect in native honor clad" and say, "Am I not 
a man and a brother?" Certainly no animal possesses a 
greater faculty for adapting himself to circumstances. 

It was undoubtedly an instinctive appreciation of the 
claims of this American mascot that prompted the 
lamented Lincoln to keep a pig at the White House. It 
could not have been merely, as he thriftily observed, 
because "there was swill enough for two," but because 

175 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the animal v/as symbolic and dear to the nation as a 
great source of its prosperity ; because it was still dearer 
to Lincoln's own State and to that of its adoption and 
to Chicago, ^ as well, where the pen is still mightier than 
the sword. It is in Illinois that the hog, reaching the 
last phase of his iEneid, made so good a landing and 
has thriven so mightily, untrammelled by the sly, insin- 
uating, and seductive bean and all other entangling alli- 
ances. It is there that he finally wrought out his own 
salvation and that of myriads of his countrymen, free 
and unalloyed, and thus so amply illustrated the words 
of the poet: — 

" And stepping westward seems to be 
A kind of heavenly destiny." 

From the earliest days of their settlement in New 
England the hog was found to be a vital part of the 
body politic and an essential addition to the common 
weal. Many references to his status appear in the writ- 
ings of Governor Winthrop and of Chief Justice Samuel 
Sewall, the owner of Hog Island, and in the various 
and voluminous diaries in which the Fathers preserved 
to all eternity — with the aid of several societies formed 
for the purpose of keeping the Pilgrims and themselves 
before the public — an exact and piquant record of all 
their own and their neighbors' backslidings.^ Josselyn, 

^ During the year 1898 more than ten million hogs left their vari- 
ous retreats and came home to die in Chicago. 

2 "No set of new colonists, probably, ever recorded their own his- 
tory so promptly and continuously as did the founders of New Eng- 
land. The leaders of the Plymouth and Salem colonies wrote from 
the very beginning; each new colony was born writing, as one might 
say, — as if a baby Avere to raise his head from the cradle and demand 
pen and ink to put down his experiences. They kept back nothing, 
so far as they knew it, — their events, their needs, their sins ; we 
know what they had for breakfast, though it might be clams or 
frost-fish; we know wherewithal they were clothed. This from 
the earliest period." — Centennial Address of Thos. TV. Higginscm before 
the Mass. Hist. Sac., January, 1891. 

176 



A REPRESENTATIVE ANIMAL 

in his "Voyages to New England," says, "Hoggs are 
there innumerable, every planter hath a Heard." He 
mentions their "feeding on shell-fish and the like," and 
ends with the declaration that " there is not better Pork 
in the whole world." 

In 1634 the hog became a powerful element in laying 
the foundation of a new and a strong form of govern- 
ment in Massachusetts Bay, and Governor Winthrop 
tells us at great length and with much earnestness 
how a godless and unscrupulous sow, born in Boston, 
by her erratic and headstrong escapades, led to seven 
years' litigation, and at length became the Alma Mater, 
the nursing mother, of the House of Representatives of 
Massachusetts. This will serve to account for many 
things, heretofore thought hard to explain.^ 

Having thus become a representative animal, so to 
speak, the hog soon appreciated his importance and was 
by no means averse to keeping himself perpetually en 
evidence^ in spite of his awkward attitude towards the 
great Second-best and his iron code. As he was of a 
roving disposition and often got into trouble and into 
alien and inhospitable cornfields, special legislation was 
provided for his benefit, that his culture, training, and 
conduct might be properly attended to. Officers called 
hogreeves were appointed, and so great was their sense 
of responsibility that the candidates often refused to 
accept the honor thus thrust upon them, and willingly 
paid the fine of twenty shillings imposed upon citizens 

1 "Such was the origin of Representative government in New 
England. It has been seen that some orders for killing swine in 
corn were the immediate occasion of its establishment; and it is 
somewhat remarkable that a few years afterward, a lawsuit about a 
stray sow, found in Boston in 1636, of which proceeding a minute 
account is given by Winthrop, ultimately led to the division of the 
Legislature into two separate branches." — Earhj Laws of Massachusetts 
IJaij, b)j F. C. Gray, LL.D., Col. of Mass. Hist. Soc, vol. viii. 3d Ser. p. 
204 

12 177 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

who thus sliirked their duties and displayed such a 
lamentable lack of public spirit. The law in the hog's 
behalf provided that he should be yoked, though singly, 
of course, and "not unequally with unbelievers," the 
decoration being "the full length of the swine's neck 
and half so much below the neck," which was very 
decollete for those days. 

At that period the hog, though unevangelical, was 
inevitably and unspeakably dear to the ministry, who 
often were constrained to take their pay in pork, and 
thus had the satisfaction of seeing the gradual accumu- 
lation of their salaries in their own pens or in the corn- 
fields of their parishioners. They greeted him with 
lambent smiles as meat for heaven and welcomed him 
con amore, in spite of the stem decree that none of " the 
peculiar people, the chosen, elect, precious," should 
allow themselves to be thus contaminated; and they 
ever stood by him to the last, feeling that he would be 
dearer to them in death than in life, and vividly con- 
scious that nothing in his life became him like the leav- 
ing it; that he was not lost but gone before; that he 
would be united to them again before long ; that he was 
soon to be in the haven where he would be, and so able 
to stand by them to the last.^ Thus it befell that our 
forefathers experienced a certain spiritual uplifting from 

1 It would seem that Bunyan knew as much about the bog of New 
England and bis pretensions as he did about Moses, and gladly 
availed himself of his superior insight to let him down a peg, as 
appears by the following gem from his poems : — 

" Of The Fatted Swine. 

" But Hogg, why look'st so big ? Why dost so floimce, 
So snort and fling away, dost now renounce 
Subjection to thy Lord, 'cause he has fed thee? 
Thou art yet but a Hogg, of such he bred thee. 
Lay by thy snorting, do not look so big, 
What was thy Predecessor but a Pig ? " 
178 



PORK AND BEANS 

the contemplation of the hog, and the fructifying of his 
broody mate, big with an expansive dividend, quite dis- 
tinct from any carnal or other secular interest. The 
sense that the clerg}' ^ had a lien upon him and were 
especially interested in his fatness, led them to recog- 
nize his peculiar adaptation to his surroundings, like 
the Calvinistic creed, the ice, the granite, and the other 
products of the alleged soil of ^lassachusetts. When 
he died, his taking off was in a good cause and not in 
vain; though his agonizing and inconsiderate appeals 
for succor, "heard round the world," were tragic in the 
extreme and would have moved to pity the heart of any 
one who did not clearly perceive that they merely be- 
tokened and accentuated the ripening of his greatness, 
and that his decease was simply a phase of his progress 
"per aspera ad astra," and that his last thought in all 
probability was, "Sit anima mea cum Puritanis." 

It was when wedded to the bean that the pig was most 
thoroughly appreciated and most completely rounded 
out his mission. The bean of our forefathers, which 
resembled the angels who, as Saint Chrysostom said, 
"do not toil, but let their good works grow out of 
them," was of aboriginal descent, and though science 
stigmatized it as Phaseolus vulgaris^ was really the 
vegetable Pocahontas of New England. It was the 
Pilgrim that first trained the bean to wed her pork, and 
that first recognized from afar the rich promise con- 
tained in such a savory and nutritious union. ^ 

1 This abnormal clerical communion seems to have attained to a 
substantial development in the mother country in the seventeenth 
century, for we read in the Diary of Anthony a Wood that in 1681 at 
Oxford they had "altered and changed" the pig-market into the 
Divinity School, with dormitories where the students might elaborate 
their sermons and thus insure the requisite "virtus dormitiva." 

2 In a work by Alice Morse Earle, entitled " Customs and Fashions 
of Old New England," the writer says: " Josselyn gives a very full 

179 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

" For contemplation ho, and valor, formed : 
For softness she, and sweet, attractive grace." 

The Christians of that day were not raised under glass, 
as in this deciduous age, and they sorely needed the 
ripe and harmonious equilibrium which a cube of pork 
infused into the bosom of every bean-pot, and that 
exuberant and unctuous richness which clothed it as with 
a garment down to the ground. This symphony became 
the mouth better than Sternhold and Hopkins, and 
proved a better tonic for his physical comfort than the 
latter did for his spiritual. Hence arose an odor of 
sanctity, suggestive of inner grace and spiritual life. 
Far off its coming shone. It blessed both him that gave 
and him that took, and thus rendered the mere asking 
of a blessing almost, one might truthfully say quite, 
superfluous ; for the blessing had already been inherited 
in anticipation, and was actually being dispensed before 
their eyes, as they realized that their hope was on the 
verge of full fruition, as of a union that had been blessed 

list of fruits and vegetables and pot-herbs, including beans, which 
were baked by the Indians in earthen pots, as they are now in 
Boston bake-sliops." 

As to the latter part of this statement, there is no proof, but the 
evidence in fact seems to point quite the other way. Daniel Gookin, 
who was Superintendent of all the Indians in Massachusetts from 
1656 to 1687, and was perfectly familiar with their modes of life, 
writes: "Their food is generally boiled maize, or Indian corn, mixed 
with kidney-beans, or sometimes without, . . . The pots they seethe 
their food in, which were heretofore, and j^et are, in use among some 
of them, are made of clay or earth, almost in the form of an egg, the 
top taken off. . . . The clay or earth they were made of was very 
scarce and dear." (Gookin's Hist. Col.) 

Professor Putnam, of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, writes 
me that "we have no evidence that any New England tribes baked 
their beans. It is probable that they boiled their beans and corn and 
other vegetables." He also says, " In Indian graves in Massachu- 
setts I have found pottery vessels which correspond with Gookin's 
description." 

180 



IN UNION IS STRENGTH 

from above by the inspiration of a wise instinct and the 
approval of gracious nature.^ No wonder that the 
Pilgrims took a certain carnal and satisfactory pride in 
this homely clief (Vceuvre, this domestic pas de deux, and 
felt supremely conscious of the perfect adaptation of 
each to each, like that of Saul to Jonathan. " They were 
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they 
were not divided." It is a comfort to see that this 
union still continues; is often present at good men's 
feasts and "ministers to the general joy of the whole 
table," as redolent of historic and domestic interest, of 
prosperous economy, and of the eternal fitness of things, 
when once their fitness has been proved beyond a doubt. 
As a result of this high and holy ministry, this fore- 
ordained alliance, we perceive, with various other truths, 
that even Moses did not know all there was to be known, 
that in union is strength, and that from the very first 
the average Yankee recognized a good thing when he 
saw it, and was able to make the most of it. His motto, 
like that of the bean, has ever been " Excelsior. "^ 

1 So far as pork and beans -were concerned, the Anglo-American 
alliance had already been begun nearly 200 years ago. In a letter 
to his friend Chatwode in 1714, Swift, " that hog of letters," as 
Lowell called him, exclaims, "Did he tell you what cursed Bacon 
we had with our Beans ? " 

2 As to the bean, it has been consecrated, as it were, by religious 
affinity, like the odor of sanctity. Cardinal Bona, in his Rerum 
Liturgicarum, lib. ii., cap. xiv., says the Church in ancient times was 
wont to bless the new fruits, and especially the bean, during the 
most solemn part of the Mass, " the Canon," in the woll-known 
Oratio " Nobis quoque peccatoribus." This was on the feast of the 
Ascension, showing that even in those days the motto of the bean 
was Excelsior. 

"Benedic, Domine, et has frugfes novas fabae, quas tu, Domine, 
rore coelesti et inundantia pluviarum ad maturitatem perducere 
dignitus es ad percipiendum nobiscum gratiarum actionem in nomine 
Domini nostri Jesu Christi, per quem haec omnia, Domine," etc. 

" Bless, O Lord, these new fruits of the bean, which thou, O Lord, 
hast thought worthy through the dews of heaven and the outpouring 

ISl 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The learned researches of later da3^s have verified 
the innate power of this blessed combination and the 
fortunate instinct from which it arose. ^ Though at 
times it searched the reins and reminded the Pilgrim of 
Job when he "filled his belly with the east wind," yet 
its powerful vitality endured to the end and enabled our 
fathers to get as tenacious a pull on this world as they 
felt sure they had on the next. Thus they were enabled 
to sit through the two hours' sermons of the Reverend 
Messrs. Chauncey, Hooker, Cotton, Mather, and other 
"magnalia Christi," and their prayers as well, to the 
bitter end, while it gave those holy men such a super- 
abundance of wind that they could preach ad infinitum 

of abundant rain to bring to maturity, that we might realize the 
work of thy gracious favor in our behalf, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

1 Ample justice has been done to the prescient wisdom and timely 
forethought of our Puritan forefathers by Mr. W. O. Atwater in 
"The Century" for June, 1888, in an article entitled "What we 
should eat." 

" The cod-fish and potatoes and pork and beans which have long 
been so much used in and about New England form a most economi- 
cal diet; indeed, scarcely any other food available in that region has 
supplied so much and so valuable nutriment at so little cost. The 
combination is likewise in accord with the highest physiological law. 
Half a pound each of salt cod-fish and pork, two-thirds of a pound of 
beans, and three pounds of potatoes would together supply almost 
exactly the 125 grams of protein and 3500 calorics of energy that our 
standard for the day's food of a workingman calls for. 

" I am told that the mixtures of these materials, largely known as 
fish-balls and baked beans, are being exported from Boston in large 
quantities. Possibly this is an indication that the outer world is 
growing wiser, and it is doubtless a compliment to Massachusetts 
legislators that the restaurant under the gilded dome on Beacon Hill 
is popularly called ' The Beanery.' " Praise from a source so learned 
and so wise is praise indeed. 

To this extract I venture to add an item to the effect that until 
within a half-century or so Beacon Hill and Beacon Street were 
invariably pronounced Bacon Hill and Bacon Street, doubtless a 
popular tribute to the hog's share in the prosperity of the Com- 
monwealth. 

182 



THE GLORIES OF THE BEAN 

without turning a luiir of their protracted and orthodox 
■wigs, or showing any more signs of exhaustion than a 
pair of bellows — like Virgil's mares, "vento gravidse." 
Not in vain had they read in their Pliny " fabam voci 
prodesse, " — that the bean was good for the voice, — and 
in their Xenophonthat the. sacrifice of "whole hogs " to 
Zeus by that cunning and ambidextrous leader had saved 
the wrecks of the Ten Thousand and covered their final 
escape from the barbarians. 

Such was the "benevolent assimilation" which took 
so prominent a part in conducting our forefathers 
towards that full fruition which we now enjoy, and 
which is actually the triumphant outcome of a keen 
sense of the resources of nature, which she ever so 
amply proffers to those in need.^ 

1 The beneficent Franklin, with his natural philanthropy and 
quick appreciation of the blessings that the swine had conferred upon 
his fellow-citizens, gladly welcomed an opportunity to extend this 
ample boon to other lands less richly favored. Mr. Parton, in " The 
People's Book of Biography," informs us that "Franklin entered 
warmly into a scheme for sending a ship to the Sandwich Islands for 
the purpose of stocking them with pigs." Thus a way was gradually 
prepared for the support of the missionaries from New England who 
afterwards settled there, and for the subsequent annexation of Hawaii. 
In all which we recognize the finger of Providence guided by the 
hand of Franklin. 



Paut V 

Hercules, Adams, and Franklin. — Judgment of Hercules. — Lord 
Shaftesbury. — Bishop Lowth. — Hercules and the Continental 
Congress. — Hercules and Prodicus. — Career of the Hero. — 
Gladstone. — Robert le Diable. — Professor Muller. — David Sears 
and his Fourth God. — Hercules in Art. — The Greek Sculptors. 
— The Lansdowne Hercules. 

Having wandered apparently far from my immedi- 
ate subject, which is to record some few facts connected 
with the early stages of our national seal, I now return 
to the letter of Adams, which thus continues : — 

" I proposed the choice of Hercules, as engraved by Gri- 
belin in some edition of Lord Shaftesbury's work. The 
hero resting on his club; Virtue pointing to her rugged 
mountains on one hand and persuading him to ascend; 
Sloth, glancing at her flowery paths of pleasure, wantonly 
reclining on the ground, displaying the charms both of her 
eloquence and person to seduce him into vice. But this 
is too complicated a group for a seal or medal, and is not 
original." 

From Moses to Hercules may seem a far cry to this 
generation, but it was decidedly otherwise in the days 
of which I am writing, and especially with Adams and 
Franklin, both of whom felt the influence of these two 
demigods very keenly. This was peculiarly the case 
with Adams, to whom Hercules had, very early in his 
career, begun to present himself as a guardian angel, 
dispensing sweetness and light, and a helpful and power- 
ful mentor, such as Xenophon found him in the famous 
Retreat of the Ten Thousand, — that " high-water mark 

184 



ADAMS AND HERCULES 

in military history," — when he offered up thankful 
sacrifices as to a saving protector and guide. As early 
as his twenty-third year we find these words in Adams's 
diary: "The other night the choice of Hercules came 
into my mind and left impressions there which I hope 
will never be effaced, nor long unheeded. . . . ' Which, 
dear youth, will you prefer, a life of effeminacy, indo- 
lence, and obscurity, or a life of industry, temperance, 
and honor? Take my advice.' " 

Apparently Hercules was never out of his thoughts 
to the end. Even in Paris, among all the cares and 
labors of his important position, he writes to Mrs. 
Adams in the spring of 1780 : — 

" There is everything here that can inform the under- 
standing, or refine the taste, and indeed, one would think, 
that could purify the heart. Yet it must be remembered 
there is everything here, too, which can seduce, betray, 
deceive, deprave, corrupt, and debauch it. Hercules marches 
here in full view of the steeps of virtue on one hand, and 
the flowery paths of pleasure on the other, and there are few 
who make the choice of Hercules. That my children may 
follow his example is my earnest prayer; but I sometimes 
tremble when I hear the siren-song of Sloth, lest they 
should be captivated with her bewitching charms and her 
soft, insinuating music." 

By Franklin also, though he looked upon Hercules 
from a point of view very different from that of Adams, 
the hero had long been regarded as a prolific influence 
for the promotion of the public weal, as a fertile source 
of political inspiration, and as a potent emblem of 
authority. 

Hercules and his exploits seem to have been very 
familiar to Franklin from the Homeric aspect. On the 
20th of November, 1781, he received the news of the 

185 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

suiTender of Lord Comwallis, and on the 26th of that 
month he wrote to Adams, " The infant Hercules in liis 
cradle has now strangled his second serpent and gives 
hopes that his future history will be answerable." In 
the succeeding summer he made plans for preserving 
this suggestive emblem in the form of a medal, as he 
was veiy much pleased with the design and it was often 
in his thoughts. On one side was Hercules with the 
serpents and the words, " Non sine diis animosus infans," 
— "The courageous child was aided by the gods." For 
this he was indebted to his friend. Sir William Jones, 
to whom he wrote to express his sense thereof in a letter 
dated 17th March, 1783, " for some of your ideas and 
for the mottoes you were so kind as to furnish." A 
copy of the medal in gold was sent to Louis XVI., and 
others of less costly material to various friends and high 
dignitaries. 

If Franklin had known the source of the motto, his 
quick wit would probably have detected a certain inap- 
titude in the use to which he put it. It was taken from 
the Ode to Calliope, by Horace, in the third Book of 
his Carmina»i The ode was written in praise of his 
friend and patron, the Emperor Augustus, one of the 
most cruel and heartless tyrants ever known; and the 
"courageous infant" was the poet himself, who at every 
age was about as different from Hercules as it would 
be easy to conceive. He represents himself as having 
fallen asleep in the woods on the Apulian Hill, when 
tired with play. The wood pigeons covered his infant 
form with laurel and myrtle leaves and thus preserved 
him from the snakes which he so greatly dreaded. 

1 " Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis 
Dormirem et ursis, ut premerer sacra 
Lauroque collataque myrto, 
Nou sine dis animosus infans." 
186 



HORACE AND HERCULES 

Thankful for liis escape, when he awoke, and much 
elated by his bravery, he Avas convinced that he had 
been protected by the IMuses, who had proved as friendly 
to himself as they had always been to Augustus. From 
this it is plain that there was a radical difference in 
the two heroes. This is the second time that Horace's 
imperial patron was brought into a connection, more or 
less close, with our early history, as wilLbe seen on a 
future page of this volume. 

From what has been said in reference to Hercules and 
Moses, — who may have been contemporaries for all that 
is known to the contrar}", — it will be easily seen why it 
was that these two demigods shone like kindred stars 
in the estimation of our fathers, who would gladly have 
identified the young republic with names to them so 
glorious and so worthy, and would have placed their 
deeds imperishably on record, where the coming nation 
might daily see them and be encouraged to profit by 
their grandeur. 

As to Hercules, it was Lord Shaftesbury who was 
largely responsible for the new light in which the hero 
suddenly dawned upon all English-speaking people in 
the early part of the eighteenth century, and especially, 
at a later date, upon our forefathers, many of whom so 
cordially sympathized with the liberal and radical notions 
of that noble philosopher and were very familiar with 
his works. To Lord Shaftesbury "The Judgment of 
Hercules, according to Prodicus, " visionary as was its 
scheme, absurd its details, and utterly fabulous its 
origin, seemed a divine revelation and a new apotheosis 
of virtue, that might well serve for the regeneration of 
man. When he had tlius been led to adorn this fantas- 
tic allegory with a setting of such artistic and typo- 
graphical luxury as had never before been seen, the 
hero was quickly welcomed by a tidal wave of popular 

187 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

applause. Then it was realized that Lord Shaftesbury 
and Prodicus had between them translated the pugilist, 
robber, adulterer, and general ruffian into a saint, an 
oracle, and an ennobling symbol of virtue successfully 
struggling with the powers of darkness. In this new 
evangel, this Hercules renaissance^ the poets of that 
day found a fresh and fertile source of inspiration, and 
Shenstone, Lowth, and others paid it the tribute of the 
best that was in them. Even William Dunscombe 
responded to this new furore in the "Whitehall Even- 
ing Post "for October 24, 1724, and we learn "there 
was such a demand that in a few days the paper was out 
of print." Under these circumstances it is not strange 
that Adams regarded this Gospel of the eighteenth 
century as another "light shining in darkness" and as 
worthy of an equal place with the Decalogue; that, 
with his inborn capacity for great thoughts and his 
firm resolution to endure and to defy trial, labor, and 
temptation unscathed, he should have gladly welcomed 
the support of its purifying influence and have been 
eager to impart its heroic glow to others. 

The general enthusiasm over the reconstruction of 
Hercules and the revival of that hero's cult were still 
farther quickened by the poem of Bishop Lowth, which 
consisted of nearly three hundred really meritorious 
verses. This was published in 1748, and one can easily 
imagine with what appreciation Adams, the life-long 
devotee of sturdy and uncompromising rectitude, must 
have absorbed every line thereof. It must have been 
with a sacred flame of joy that he read the concluding 
stanza, conscious as he was of his own high aims, and 
of the noble ideals that had inspired his life thus far 
and were to consecrate it to the end. 

" Unmoved in toils, in dangers undismayed, 
By many a hardy deed and bold emprize, 
188 



HERCULES AND THE POETS 

From fiercest monsters thro' her powerful aid, 

He freed the earth ! Thro' her he gained the skies. 
'T was virtue placed him in the blest abode; 
Crowned with eternal youth, among the gods, a god." 

It is edifying to observe the contrast between the 
narrative of Xenophon and the various amplifications of 
other writers, as well as the difference between the 
pictorial and the poetic treatment thereof. As the de- 
scriptive features of both Virtue and Pleasure in the 
original essay cover hardly a dozen lines, free range is 
left for the imagination, and the opportunity has been 
fully improved by all parties concerned. The painters, 
with the exception of Lord Shaftesbury and his vaga- 
ries, have a general agreement among themselves, based 
on the report of Xenophon and the portrayal thereof by 
Pier di Cosimo, now at Dresden, while the poets take 
but little notice of Xenophon, of each other, or of 
the various painters, though Bishop Lowth, at least, 
must have seen the picture by Lord Shaftesbury as well 
as that of Poussin, since each was but a few miles from 
Overton, of which he was vicar when he wrote his poem 
in 1748. "The Judgment of Hercules," by Shenstone, 
which, as Disraeli says, "failed to attract notice," ap- 
peared in 1741, and the florid fluency of its pentameters 
is very agreeable and not without merit. Pleasure 
"lets herself into speech " with much vivacity and glows 
sparkling on to the end. 

" She ceased ; and on a lilied bank reclined : 
Her flowing robe waved wanton with the wind ; 
One tender hand her drooping head sustains; 
One points expressive to the flowery plains." 

We also read of — 

" Her fond, contagious airs of lawless love. 
Each wanton eye deluding, glancing, fired. 
And amorous dimples on each cheek conspired." 
189 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The bishop pays his devoirs to tlie enchantments of 
Pleasure with equal warmth and minuteness, and one 
somehow gets the impression that in his earlier days she 
may have dawned upon him in her own bewitching 
person. Ilis poetry is of about the same style and 
merit as that of his predecessor. 

" Lightly she danc'd along: her robe betray'd 
Thro' the clear texture every tender limb, 

Ileight'ning the charms it only seeni'd to shade : 
And as it flow'd adown, so loose and thin, 
Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin. 

" Oft with a smile she viewed herself askance; 

Even on her shade a conscious look she threw ; 
Then all around her cast a careless glance, 

To mark what gazing eyes her beauty drew. 
As they came near before that other maid. 

Approaching decent, eagerly she press'd 
With, hasty step, nor of repulse afraid. 

With freedom bland, the wond'ring youth address'd, 
With winning fondness on his neck she hung; 
Sweet as the honey-dew flow'd her enchanting tongue." 

And so on with truly fervent and episcopal rapture. 

The same profuse abandon to the fascinations of 
Pleasure is noticeable in this subject as treated by the 
Rev. Peter Layng, Rector of Everton in Northampton, 
whose poem was published in the same year as Bishop 
Lowth's, though the charms of Virtue are described in 
the briefest and most perfunctory manner: — • 

" The One, like Beauty's fair and potent Queen, 
With all the labour'd Elegance of Art 
Impress'd the Lustre of each native Charm : 
Stuck on her Cheek the bright Vermilion glow'd; 
And down her snowy Neck in wavy Curls, 
Her fragrant and ambrosial Tresses hung. 
Her wanton Eye, that still new Conquests sought, 
With artful Lear of meretricious Glance, 
Too easily ensnar'd her Lovers' Hearts." 
190 



PRODICUS AND LORD SHAFTESBURY 

There is not one word of all this in the Prodician 
text. 

To the reflecting mind, however, all this apparent 
deviation will seem but natural, as the divine poetic 
temper is very excitable and often yields to the puis- 
sant influence of the genius loci. Readei-s of Words- 
worth will not fail to recall the fact that the only 
time in his whole life that he was thorouglily fuddled 
was when he first went to the rooms once occupied by 
Milton in Christ College, Cambridge. Here in "the 
innocent lodge and oratory" of the author of "Comus," 
as "one of a festive circle," he poured out libations to 
the great poet's memory, 

" till pride 
And gratitude grew dizzy in a brain 
Never excited by the fumes of wino 
Before that hour, or since." 

The effect being that, though " through a length of streets 
he ran, ostrich-like," he was actually too late for prayers I 
If the Continental Congress had adopted the sug- 
gestion of Adams and had chosen for a symbol of 
the new republic "The Choice of Hercules," as repre- 
sented by Lord Shaftesbury and taken from the famous 
fable of Prodicus, the moral effect might have been 
good for the time being, but it would have been based 
upon an equivocal basis and exposed to divers interpre- 
tations. Prodicus was " the most respectable among the 
Sophists," an ambitious and eloquent rhetorician of the 
fifth century B. c, who cared much for striking effects 
and little for facts. His fable was like " an allegory on 
the banks of the Nile," and was merely the fruit of his 
fantastic imagination. It disagreed entirely with the 
general opinion of Hercules in his day and with any 
inferences that could be drawn from all that was then 
known, or supposed to be known, concerning his career. 

191 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

It ought perhaps to be stated here that not a single 
fragment of the original essay of Prodicus has survived 
to our time and that the earliest and only account there- 
of is to be found in tlie " Memorabilia " of Xenophon, 
who gives it, probably with various curtailments, as 
having come from the lips of Socrates. Since the latter, 
according to his pupil, did not pretend that his own 
report was exact, but adds, "so far as my memory 
goes," the result can only be regarded as a report of a 
report and thus sketchy and uncertain, though it is 
likely that we have a sort of synopsis of the work, and 
sufficient to afford a correct idea of its tenor and object. 
This appears the more plausible from the fact that Soc- 
rates and Xenophon were contemporaries of its author, 
and that the "Memorabilia" were composed not long 
after the death of the former. We find no expression 
of opinion on their part, or by any other writer, as to 
the merits or demerits of the fable, but each of them 
seems, as a professed friend of moral wisdom, to offer a 
tacit approval thereof simply by quoting it, though 
Socrates evidently seeks to cast a slur upon it by saying 
that Prodicus " ostentatiously parades it before most of 
his disciples," a statement that seems very natural, since 
Socrates was no friend of the Sophists. As Prodicus is 
said to have been very fond of money, he would naturally 
make frequent use of his fable from its popularity and 
its consequent profitable quality. When Plato in the 
"Protagoras" represents Socrates as calling Prodicus 
"an all-wise and inspired man," and to endow him with 
" a wisdom more than human and of a very ancient date, " 
he must have designed to give a forcible example of 
that sarcastic irony of which Socrates was a past-master 
and with which he so completely annihilated Thrasy- 
machus, another eminent Sophist; for antiquity reveals 
to us nothing whatever that would authorize such 

192 



XENOPIION AND PRODICUS 

extravagant eulogy. Though Professor Brandis states 
that " Plato manifestly makes Socrates occupy his own 
place and transfers to him the doctrines that were pecu- 
liar to himself," it is very clear that Plato never could 
have intended to give that estimate of Prodicus as his 
own, and all the more that he never even mentions him 
elsewhere in a way to commit himself to an unprejudiced 
opinion. 

A certain allowance should be made in our estimate 
of this moral lesson of Prodicus by reason of the atti- 
tude of its reporter, Xenophon, towards its other 
reporter, Socrates, and towards Hercules as well. 
Though Professors Brandis and Mtiller (the latter in 
his "History of Ancient Greece ") say that "in regard 
to the higher matters of philosophy, Xenophon can only 
claim the dubious merits of a Boswell, who seeks to 
record, to the best of his ability, the conversations of a 
very superior man, which he admired and listened to 
but did not thoroughly comprehend," and that, accord- 
ing to Professor Brandis, "he refrains from mixing up 
with his representation anything peculiar to himself," 
yet it must be remembered that Xenophon was a great 
admirer of Hercules, though not apparently from a 
moral but from a military and Homeric point of view. 
Thus, though unwittingly, he might easily have been 
led, from loyalty both to the hero and to Socrates, to see 
that the former at least did not lose anything at his 
hands, or might even be allowed to get the best of any 
transaction in which he was concerned. 

In the Anabasis, so naturally eloquent and truth- 
fully picturesque, — that charming chronicle of victory 
plucked from the very jaws of defeat by that immortal 
host which neither flood nor famine, fire nor frost, could 
daunt so long as it was stayed by the inspiriting ardor 
and the worthy deeds of its intrepid commander, — 
13 193 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

we read that Hercules was honored and worshipped by 
its leader as a tutelary deity, and that to his favor the 
final achievement of glory and salvation was chiefly due. 
To his inspiration we seemingly owe one of the grandest 
sentiments from Xenophon's pen. On the verge of the 
last contest that awaited his troops before entering the 
confines of their own country, the leader said, " Reflect 
that you are at the very gates of Greece. Follow in 
the steps of Hercules, our guide. Sweet were it 
surely by some brave word or noble deed, spoken or 
done this day, to leave the memory of one's self in 
the hearts of those one loves." (Anabasis, book A'ii., 
chap. V.) 

As Freeman observes in his Essays on "The His- 
torians of Athens," "While we reverence the set 
speeches of Thucydides for the deep teaching they con- 
tain, we cannot but feel that the shorter and livelier 
speeches and rejoinders, preserved or invented by Xeno- 
phon, give us a truer picture of the real tone of a debate 
in a Greek assembly." 

With the exception of the floating wreckage cast 
ashore by tradition, all knowledge of Hercules at that 
period was to be found only in the works of Homer, 
who seems to have flourished about four centuries 
before Prodicus and was both the best and the earliest 
authority on the subject. ^ The character and exploits 

^ " And thus it is that Homer, from living in the midst of an 
intermixture and fusion of bloods, continually proceeding in Greece, 
acquired a vast command of materials, and by his skilful use of them 
exercised an immense influence in the construction of the Greek 
Religion." — Gladstone, Juventus Mundi, ISGO, chap. vii. 

On a still later occasion Gladstone said: " Undoubtedly the three 
greatest men who ever lived were Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. 
Homer created a people, a language, and a religion. Dante created a 
people and a language, but not a religion. Shakespeare did not 
create any of the tliree, but I am inclined to think that his reputa- 
tion will increase and that in another century he may be universally 

194 



THE HOMERIC HERCULES 

of the hero as they appear in the works of Pindar, 
Euripides, ^schylus, and other contemporaries of 
Prodicus, were merely expansions or repetitions of, or 
additions to, the Homeric type. They revealed not the 
faintest aspiration, youthful or other, towards moral 
excellence or lofty aims, and we meet with no sugges- 
tion of any basis for the seductive allegory of Prodicus. 
On the contrary, one finds all the additional traits in 
his history invariably for the worse and his character 
steadily deteriorating, as time rolled on, until Euripides, 
about 425 b. c. , portrays him as the murderer of his wife 
and children. By the end of the second century, B. c, 
the Greek artists had often represented him in a state of 
uproarious intoxication. As early as the sixth century 
he had already figured on numerous Greek vases in the 
act of robbing the temple at Delphi of its sacred tripod; 
likewise as purloining the apples of the Hesperides, 
and, in short, as stealing anything of value that he 
could lay his hands on and not hesitating to kill every 
one that resisted him. To Pindar in the first half of 
the fifth century b. c, he was the strangler of serpents 

acknowledged to be the greatest man who ever lived." See the 
"Spectator," Dec. 3, 1898. 

As Freeman wrote of Gladstone, *' The dramatic aspect of the 
several .deities, the conception which Homer had formed of each, 
their powers, their functions, their physical and moral attributes, the 
features in which Homer's idea of each differs from that of later 
writers — all these points have been studied by him with minute and 
affectionate care, and they are brought out in his work with a ful- 
ness and accuracy of detail, Vith an union of taste and moral feeling, 
such as we have never seen before." — Historical Essays, 1873. 

I designedly omit to mention the works of Hesiod, although he 
may perhaps have lived before Homer, partly because his references 
to Hercules are of no particular importance, and partly because, such 
as they are, they quite agree with those of his fellow poet. More- 
over, as Hesiod was " the father of didactic poetry in Greece," if any 
edifj'ing element in the life of Hercules had ever come to his notice, 
he would certainly have made the most of it. He was not one to 
waste such a treasure-trove. 

195 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

in his "saffron-dyed swaddling-band; " he was also one 
■who had "sacked the city of the Trojans;" who had 
" given to death many a most hateful man walldng in 
crooked insolence;" who had slain the son of Neptune 
with his club, and " made war with Augcas, and killed 
him and all his sons but one, and caused his kingdom to 
sink into the deep gulf of destruction amidst the fire 
and strokes of the sword," with other bloody deeds too 
numerous to repeat. 

The Homeric record of Hercules offered but scanty 
material for an eloquent and seductive tale with a moral 
tag, and nothing but the unscrupulous audacity of 
Prodicus would have dared to transform him into a 
shape under which no reader of the Iliad would ever 
have recognized him, that of a godly youth who scorned 
temptation and nobly chose the rugged path of austere 
self-denial that led to the abode of Virtue. It was not 
thus that he was revealed to Homer. In the poet's works 
he not only fails as a model of purity, but is depicted 
as a pirate, murderer, ravisher, and universal malefactor, 
who knew no law but the indulgence of every lust and 
the gratification of every passion, and who even thought 
nothing of outraging the sacred claims of hospitality, so 
hallowed in those days, by killing his host and stealing 
his property. It was thus that he capped the climax of 
his career by slapng Iphitus, when he was the latter's 
guest, and carrying off his fine mares, and in addition 
to his other crimes, is described as wounding Juno in 
the breast with a three-barbed arrow, without regard to 
the fact that she was his mother-in-law and was, more- 
over, the only respectable personage among the frail 
sisterhood of Olympus, as she alone had been really 
married. 

Gladstone certainly puts it very mildly when he says, 
"The character of Heracles, or Hercules, is one of 

196 



THE GODS AND DEMIGODS 

which we hear much more evil than good in the poems, 
if, indeed, we hear any good at alL" (Juventus Mundi, 
p. 380.) 

This was evidently the fruit of his riper judgment, 
for eleven j^ears before (Studies on Homer, v. ii., p. 
341, 1858) he had recorded the discovery in Hercules 
of " the virtues of patience, obedience, valor, and strug- 
gle," by which "he had earned a reward beyond the 
grave." His later studies had doubtless led him to 
change his point of view from the Prodician to the 
Homeric. In these days "a reward beyond the grave" 
has a noble and edifying ring, but in the early ages of 
Greece, its popular meaning in every sense was quite 
different from any that now prevails, and, so far as the 
gods and demigods were concerned, seemed but the 
natural issue and the fitting guerdon of a career like 
that of Hercules. That hero would have found himself 
much at home when seated with the lovely-ankled 
Hebe, as his bride and waitress, in an assembly of 
divinities of doubtful reputation, — sensual, revengeful, 
and passionate ; as riotous and irrepressible as so many 
animals; disdaining all the laws of decency; monsters 
of depravity; fighting each other; quaffing goblets and 
scenting or devouring the flesh of the slain; deities 
whose existence served no purpose but to degrade the 
heavenly element in man by promising the eternal grati- 
fication of every brutal instinct in another world to 
those who had led the most worthless lives in this.^ 

Such was the recompense that Hercules received at 
the hands of Homer, though his far-sighted genius led 
him, either from a vague sense of ultimate disapproval 

1 As Adeimantus says to Socrates in " The Republic," " Lying 
on couches, everlastingly drunk, crowned with garlands, their idea 
seems to be that an immortality of drunkenness is the brightest meed 
of virtue." Tliis is what Plato appears to have thought of the celes- 
tials about 400 B. c. 

197 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

or from a desire to compromise with the claims of the 
proprieties, to place the hero's shade, or understudy, in 
Hades. There, in "those mansions, terrible, squalid, 
which the very gods loathe," Ulysses saw his "eidolon, 
wearing a ' horrid baudreich, ' adorned with the battles 
and slaughters" of his murderous career, while about 
him flew "the clamor of the dead," the wailings of his 
innumerable victims. 

In view of these facts and of the appalling uncer- 
tainties that awaited the truly good in those early days, 
Prodicus did well in seeking merely to transmute his 
hero into an inspiring model of terrestrial worth, with 
no attempt to forecast his future. 

Such was the general rufSan and freebooter that was 
chosen by Prodicus to exemplify and enforce a great 
moral lesson and to impress upon his hearers the blissful 
and abundant harvest which would surely follow from 
the stern self-repression, the precocious rectitude and 
devotion which he imputed to his hero. The fitness of 
his example would have been very much the same, if he 
had made use of Venus as a bait for his allegory and 
had represented her as a sort of Saint Theresa, who had 
early decided to retire from the follies of the world and 
taken refuge in spiritual grandeur and the redemption 
of the souls of men; or if he had portrayed the vain, 
voluptuous, cowardly, and ignoble Paris as the Wash- 
ington of his day and the type of every manly and en- 
during quality. 

As to the various writers concerning Hercules who 
flourished several generations after Prodicus, they nar- 
rated much that was new, and doubtless apocryphal, 
in regard to his career, but it was very clear that they 
invariably took their cue from Homer, and not from 
Prodicus. We find no virtuous exploits of his com- 
memorated, while those that were added were mostly 

198 



ROBERT LE DIABLE 

far more to his discredit than even the stories in the 
Iliad and the Odyssey. These were evidently preferred 
by the world at large to the delusive fiction of the 
Sophist, and we learn from Apollodorus and other excel- 
lent authorities that by the time Hercules^ was nineteen 
years old — the age at which the virtuous Adams had 
already decided to imitate his Prodician character and 
was teaching the Homeric view to the boys of Worcester 
— he had already married, quite informally, the fifty 
daughters of King Thespius, and had also brained his 
music-teacher, Linus, with his own lyre, merely for 
telling him the truth about his playing. ^ Any unpreju- 
diced person would see at once that such a character 

1 There is much in the life of Robert le Diable, as narrated by 
the early chroniclers, to remind us of Hercules, and especially this 
hasty "taking off" of his teacher and the subsequent reconstruc- 
tion of the hero by Prodicus. The incident, as told by Wynkyn de 
Worde, is full of a quaint and graphic picturesqueness and in the 
characteristic Herculean manner; a genuine "pastoral of the middle 
ages " as Taine calls the murderous life and death of Pe de Puyane, 
admiral, Mayor of Bayonne, and the Hercules of his tragic and 
tumultuous race generally. 

" How Robert kylled his scole mayster. It fell upon a daye that 
his scole mayster sholde chastyse Robert and would have made him 
to have left his cursed codycyons, but Robert gate a murderer or 
bodkin, and thrast his mayster in the bely that his guttes fell at his 
fete, and so fell doune to the erth, and Robert threw his boke agenst 
the walles in despyte of his mayster, sayinge thus now have I 
taughte them that never preste nor clerke shal correct me, nor be 
my mayster. And from thens forth there coude no mayster be foimde 
that was so bolde to take in hande to teche and correcte this Roberte, 
but were glad to let him alone and have his owne ways." 

And yet in spite of all this untoward beginning, Robert eventually 
came to be styled, like Moses, " the man of God," and the biography 
concludes quite in the Prodician manner: — 

" Here endeth the lyfe of the most feerfuUest, and unmercyfullest 
and myscheuousest Robert the Deuyll, whiche was afterwards called 
the Seruaunt of our Lord Jhesu Cryste." ("The Lyfe of Robert 
the Deuyll," by Wynkyn de Worde, Pickering, 1827.) 

2 Linus was really a martyr, and died like Saint Cecilia, " pro fide 
vindicata," which being interpreted means "in defence of a lyre." 

199 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

had its limitations, and would lead to much discussion 
when held up to the light as a proposed symbol of 
national dignity and honor and a model for the encour- 
agement of good morals. 

The estimate of any character varies greatly in most 
cases and is often found to depend largely upon the 
point of view. That of Hercules, when contemplated 
from the towering peaks of philosophic mythology, 
assumes a far different aspect from the one above given. 
In the last work of Prof. Max Miiller, " Contributions 
to the Science of Llythology," 1897, I find the follow- 
ing account of Hercules, from which it is clear that 
the professor thinks him "more sinned against than 
sinning." 

"Take such a case as that of Herakles. His distant 
solar origin will hardly be doubted. But as soon as some 
of his solar labors had become popular in Greece, as soon 
as Herakles had become a Greek hero, there arose a demand 
for more and more Herakles stories, whether they were 
solar in their origin or not ; Herakles was no longer a solar 
hero only, but he became what has been called a Culture- 
hero, that is, an ethical character, who brought light out of 
night, who punished the deeds of darkness, rescued the 
victims of violence, and was looked upon as the protector 
of law and order, nay, as the founder of cities and the 
ancestor of royal families and of whole clans." ^ 

Verily, there seems to be a mild flavor of discrepancy 
here. The professor's resume, of the career of Hercules 
offers a forcible illustration of a dictum of his in another 
part of his work : " We wish to explain what we can, 
but we cannot explain all we wish." 

^ Even Mark Twain, though he acknowledges that Hercules was 
"an enterprising, energetic man," concedes that it would have been 
" unconstitutional to call him a god." 

200 



THE SEARSARIAN CULT 

If Prodicus could have foreseen what a first-class 
certificate, twenty-four hundred years after his death, 
Hercules was to receive from Prof. Max Muller, and in 
what a handsome way the latter was to come to the 
rescue of his paradoxical hero, it certainly would have 
sweetened his last hours and gone far towards avenging 
him of his artistic contemporaries and their sad lack of 
appreciation. It is a pity that he could not have realized 
that, with all his high intent, his final success was to 
far exceed his hopes ; that Hercules was not only what 
he claimed, but a great deal more, and was really a 
grand " ethical character, " like Aristotle, Saint Paul, and 
the truly masculine and noble Johnson (whose Herculean 
essence was strikingly verified when he knocked down 
Osborn, the bookseller, with the Septuagint), and that 
he was also the founder of a new religious cult, like 
Moses, Confucius, George Fox, Joseph Smith, Mother 
Ann, David Sears, of Boston, with his "Christian 
Liturgy "and his fourth God ^ and all the long tail of 

1 As the evolution and subsequent career of this deity of local and 
domestic conception may not be familiar to most of my readers, I 
venture to recount tliem in a short note. It seems the Trinity really 
had a father, who had succeeded in lying perdu ever since time 
was until 1847, when he was brought to light by David Sears, of 
Boston, who used him as a " deus ex machina " for the disentangle- 
ment of his "Christian Liturgy." As this haute nouveaute belonged 
to the Xo Xame Series, he was christened in " The Searsarian or 
Christian Articles," "The Great Spirit of the Universe," probably 
with the design to keep other pretenders at a distance, Boston 
fashion. It was certainly comprehensive enough for that and really 
"filled out the bill," so to speak. How he had managed to keep 
himself so long in seclusion, does not appear, but it was probably 
because, like the Virgin Mary, he had " known not a man," until 
Mr. Sears brought him forth. His reception was characteristically 
cold and he soon found that he was dc trap and likely to get so far 
and no father but his introducer. Having no Gabriel to blow his 
trumpet but Mr. Scars, and seeing that he had but a limited pull, 
even though born in transcendental Boston, he returned to the local- 
ity whence he came, and the place that had known him for a week 

201 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

spiritual pretension gradually tapering down to nothing 
in a futile and evanescent diminuendo ; that the " alle- 

or so, knew him no more. Tie has now become archaic. " And no 
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto tliis day." In their inmost 
hearts the pious Eostonians of that era were somewhat scandalized 
by this superfluous addition to their pantheon, even though it came 
from a j^rofessional, high-toned member of their own quattrocento. 
Though, like the ancient Athenians, they were ever " eager to tell or 
to hear some new thing," they were compelled by instinct to draw 
the line at a certain point and could not easily recognize an " un- 
known god," even though "declared " unto them by the head of 
their own local nobility, who was willing to give him a proper in- 
troduction as one of his own set. In fact, three gods were fully as 
many as the majority of the citizens could live up to, even in Boston, 
and the Unitarians found even one quite as much as they could get 
outside of with any regard to their consciences. Ilence it is not 
remarkable that the Sears special delivery early came to grief and 
that the temple built by his creator for his sole and exclusive wor- 
ship, is now standing out in the cold at Longwood, unfrequented and 
unmolested. 

The Sears conception was, of course, in every way creditable to 
its author's good intent, but unfortunately for the good people of 
Boston, about the same time that Mr, Sears was delivered of his 
unique abortion, Theodore Parker was relieved of another of quite 
a different sort. lie had discovered that the fourth God was the 
devil, and he omitted no occasion of presenting this opinion to the 
world as long as he lived, even in his last final letter to his society 
M'hen he went away to die in 1850. In a sermon on "Teaching for 
doctrines the commandments of men " he says: " The Devil is really 
the fourth person of the popular Godliead in the Christian churches. 
The power assigned to him and the influence over men commonly 
attributed to him is much greater since the creation than that of all 
the three other Persons in the Godhead. So that really, according to 
the practical teaching of this theology, the unacknowledged person 
of the Godhead is, after all, stronger than God the Father, God the 
Son, God the Holy Ghost." 

Here indeed was a crevasse, seemingly impassable, between two 
of Boston's very finest, and the situation was greatly intensified, 
especially to those who had experienced theology, by Emerson, who 
was wont to style Satan "the great second-best," — a title that not 
only disagreed with the Parker diagnosis, but had long been admitted 
as belonging exclusively to Moses. The natural resiilt was that the 
Deity, the Trinity, the Devil, and Moses were so sadly snarled up 
that very few indeed knew exactly what to believe. Here again we 

202 



THE mothp:r of the trinity 

gorj^" so-called, was really no allegory at all, but a 
happy inspiration of genius, based on the perennial 
realities of science and the mysteries of the solar system, 

see what " a superiority of knowledge " could do in Boston, though 
Theodore Parker kindly and modestly veils the sentiment under the 
plausible formula, " What religion may do for a man." There is 
much truth in the dictum of Josh Billings : "It is better not to 
know so many things than to know so many things that ain't so." 

Though the Trinity seems not to have had a father previous to 
the paternal trouvaille of Mr. Sears, a mother had been provided 
ages ago. In the year 431 the Council of Ephesus, "the City of the 
Virgin," .where she was both buried and resurrected, decided that 
she was " the Mother of (^od, Mary the Illimitable, through whom in 
the holy gospels lie is called blessed, through whom the Holy Trin- 
ity is sanctified," etc. (See "A Letter addressed to the Kev. E. B. 
Pusey, D. D.," by John H. Newman, D. D., 18(34.) As Dr. Newman 
•RTote in 1849, "She gave birth to the Creator. She was one whom 
the Almighty has deigned to make, not His servant, not His friend, 
not His intimate, but His superior," etc. (" The Fitness of the Glories 
of Mary," by the same author.) There is much more of this hysteri- 
cal infatuation, which it would be superfluous to quote, and yet 
some time later the writer in another work speaks of "the antics of 
Sir Robert Peel." 

This belief Newman asserts to be " an integral portion of the 
faith." It was promulgated at Ephesus by Saint Cyril, patriarch of 
Alexandria, and his adherents, and was followed by " an episcopal 
tumult," as Gibbon tells us ("Decline and Fall," vol. v., chap, 
xlvii.), and by "three months of rage and clamor, sedition and 
blood," with the result that the saint's chief opponent, Nestorius, 
patriarch of Constantinople, was finally defeated and driven into 
banishment, poverty, and death. History teaches us that Saint 
Cyril was ambitious, unscrupulous, and vindictive, and ever quick to 
further his schemes by bribery, corruption, threats, artifice, and 
every other disreputable aid. It was by this means that a mother 
was secured for the Holy Trinity. Saint Cyril is now chiefly known 
as the murderer of Hypatia, whose sad fate is so graphically de- 
scribed by Kingsley. As he writes, "Cyril has gone to his own 
place. What that place is in history is but too well known." Pre- 
sumably Saint Cyril reflected that the extinction of one virgin justly 
required the elevation of another. As for the faithful Newman, he 
endows the saint with " the virtues of faith, firmness, intrepidity, 
fortitude, endurance, perseverance, and an intense religious devotion 
to the honor of his Divine Kedeemer and Lord." So much depends 
on the point of view. 

203 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

which were to enable him eventually to get the start of 
Homer and Pindar, so that they and their vain and 
pra<,nnatical followers would be utterly and eternally 
nowhere at all before the end of the twentieth century. 

Unfortunately these facts were unknown to Lord 
Shaftesbury and John Adams, and this rich inheritance 
was concealed from their prophetic gaze. Thus it befell 
that the solar hero failed to secure a place in our coat 
of arms, or to obtain any but a collateral part in the 
system that revolves around the Constitution of the 
United States. In view of which we can only say: Had 
these things been otherwise, other things might have 
been different. 

The discovery of Prodicus that Hercules, instead of 
being simply the brutal hero of a thousand crimes, was 
really a paragon of virtue and a steadfast star for the 
guidance of sorely tempted youths, must have dawned 
upon his disciples like a surprising revelation, and have 
impressed them, even in that remote age, with the truth 
afterwards to be so wisely proclaimed by Henry V., — 

" There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out," ^ 

^ This saying of Henry V. is a pregnant truth from the very heart 
of things and has been and still is exemplified in numberless forms. 
" There is a budding morrow in midnight," and so there is in a 
thousand other black and unpromising shapes. Even Sodom and 
Gomorrah did not live in vain, for a distinguished French chemist 
has discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea, in which those 
cities have long been held in solution, — so different from the " cul- 
ture fluid " of Boston ! — are certain death to every species of microbe 
except tetanus, or lockjaw, an exception which after all does not 
much matter, as there is quite enough jaw-ing back and other talk 
in the world already. As Carlyle said to the Edinburgh students in 
1866, "It seems to me as if the finest nations of the world — the 
English and the American, in chief — were going all off into wind 
and tongue." 

^Madame Boucicault, proprietress of the well-known Bon Marche, 
in Paris, was so smitten with remorse on her death-bed that she left 

204 



PRODICUS AND HIS DEVOTEES 

and they must have been fairly dazed by the genius of a 
master who coukl produce such beneficent results from 
so much repulsive and incongruous material. From 
whatever cause, whether from the amazing audacity of 
the author of the fable, who seems, like Franklin, to 
have detected certain latent cravings of his age and to 
have swayed level with the demand therefor; or from a 
romantic approval of its sentiments, which suggested a 
far higher type of conduct than the religion of the time ; ^ 
or from a sudden and contagious reversion of feeling 
among a limited class, — it must be admitted that the 
work of Prodicus soon achieved a certain degree of 
popularity with thoughtful and intelligent persons, and 
especially among those of higher aspirations than the 
masses, who welcomed it as an aid towards the develop- 
ment of a better moral ideal. To them, it was like the 
precious jewel which "the toad, ugly and venomous," 
wears in his head. 

It was gradually realized, however, that Prodicus 
had done all he proposed to do with his imaginary char- 
acter, and had intended it merely as a suggestive help 

fire millions of francs to found a hospital for the benefit of the. fami- 
lies of the thousands of tradesmen whom her business methods had 
ruined. It is pleasant to reflect that this noble and edifying example 
has been followed in the capital of New England. 

A prominent tailor of Boston bequeathed a large part of his for- 
tune for the purpose of giving excursions to the descendants of those 
who had been impoverished by his enormous bills, in the hope that 
sails down the harbor and a sight of Deer Island, and trips to Mount 
Auburn and other popular resorts in the vicinity of that city, might 
enable his beneficiaries to forget for a few brief moments the wrongs 
they had indirectly suffered at his hands. 

1 Carlyle, in " Sartor Resartus," says: " The Old World knew noth- 
ing of Conversion; instead of Ecce Uoino^ they had only some Choice 
of Ilcrculcs.^'' 

Also, in " Wolton Reinfred," he exclaims: "O Prodicus! Was 
thy ' Choice of Hercules ' written to shame us that after twenty cen- 
turies of ' perfectibility ' we are here still arguing? " 

205 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

and stimulus to those j)ossessed of virtuous tendency, 
thiit they miglit develop it as they pleased. The Sophist 
simply provided his hero with a hill and a resolution, 
which might prove indomitable or not, according to cir- 
cumstances, and what he finally did Avith them their 
inventor never saw fit to reveal, probably feeling him- 
self hardly able to cope with the avalanche of adverse 
testimony. As the Rev. Mr. Farebrother wisely says in 
"Middlemarch " (from every point of view the greatest 
novel ever written), " ' The Choice of Hercules ' is a 
pretty fable, but Prodicus makes it easy work for the 
hero, as if the first resolves were enough. Another 
story says that he came to hold the distaff and at last 
wear the Nessus shirt." In spite of the new departure 
with which the hero was favored, we have no evidence 
that he ever sought to prove his faith by his works. 
After the first feeling of novelty had died away, he must 
have found his role rather an incubus than otherwise and 
would naturally be at a loss how to dispose of anything 
so utterly foreign to his past experience. Unless he bore 
his resolution to the "abode of Virtue" on the almost 
inaccessible heights to which the goddess points him in 
Lord Shaftesbury's picture, and left it there " pour en- 
courager les autres," we are not likely to learn his dis- 
position thereof. When Prodicus had once " given him 
his washing," as Saint Paul did to Saint Thecla, he felt 
entirely free from any farther responsibility on his part. 
He was content to have revealed the latent beneficence 
of iniquity, when judiciously cultivated, and left the 
harvest to be reaped by others. It was a far cry from 
Homer to Prodicus, and the latter very likely reflected 
that the true inwardness of a hero, his "soul of good- 
ness," however deeply buried, might well have had time 
to ripen, in the course of four centuries, like a pumpkin 
on a dung-hill, into ample and exemplary proportions. 

206 



THE ARTISTIC HERCULES 

Such a purgatory might possibly have served to trans- 
late even Hercules into a higher sphere and make him a 
radiant source of moral inspiration. 

The famous sculptors of the fifth century before 
Christ; the era of Phidias, Skopas, Polykleitos, and 
others of equal fame ; that prolific age of creative genius 
which so richly endowed the world with fresh and 
immortal types of men and gods, found ample inspira- 
tion in the cult of Hercules, which, as Helbig observes, 
had become "extraordinarily popular in Attica" during 
the preceding century. The numerous forms of beauty 
that resulted from this spur to their imaginations are 
too well known to need mention here. Not a few of 
them still exist for our learning and also for our grati- 
tude to the merciful or fortunate forbearance of time. I 
refer to these merely to emphasize the fact that among 
them all not a fragment remains to connect the sculptors 
of antiquity with the Hercules of Prodicus, or to suggest 
that his idea of the hero was thought worthy of com- 
memoration in marble or bronze. The great masters 
who lived in the days of that Sophist and doubtless 
may have listened to his eloquence, failed to respond in 
any way to his didactic tale, and, if they thought of it 
at all, probably regarded it as one of the " things that 
would have been better left unsaid." This was by no 
means strange, as their own sympathies, and those of 
the great mass of their admirers, must have been entirely 
at variance with that novel, goody-goody Hercules, 
whose claims to regard not oidy did not rest on any 
basis of fact or tradition, but were merely sentimental 
and "une quantit(5 ndgligdable," at the best. Though 
this new departure found a certain favor with those who 
liked a moral lesson to impart with patronizing unction 
to their sons or pupils, artists generally eyed it askance, 
or even with positive repugnance, and cared not to 

207 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

transmit it to future generations. Not only did the 
Homeric idea of Hercules prevail with the people at 
large, but the artists for the most part followed their 
lead, and though there were certain glorious exceptions 
to this, these never offered any suggestion of Prodician 
influence, or of moral tone, except in so far as this latter 
influence could flow from pure, abstract beauty of form 
antl feature.^ No image of the hero has yet been found 
that seems to present him in the role of a youthful and 
contrite bridegroom, about to be wedded to Virtue, for 
better or worse, with a far-away look in his eyes and 
the visible signs in his face of an ardent longing for the 
advent of "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Sandford and 
Merton." Hercules was the favorite subject of Lysippos, 
who modelled him in a hundred different shapes, and 
even transmuted Alexander the Great into his form and 
aspect, but even he never got so far as that. 

It was apparently to Polykleitos, in the latter half of 
the fifth century, that we owe a nobler and more elevat- 
ing type of Hercules than any that had before been 
created. He sought to represent the hero merely as an 

1 In a learned essay by F. G. Welcker on " Prodicus of Keos, the 
Forerunner of Socrates," the author speaks of the immense effect 
and renown of the allegory and mentions the frequent imitations 
of it by other writers. Bottiger, also, in his "Hercules in Bivio e 
Prodici Fabula," refers to the works of art of which the fable was 
the source and to the strange fascination felt for it. Unfortunately, 
these statements would seem to be largely conjectural, as no name 
of any first-class writer is cited, except Socrates and Xenophon, 
nor is any distinguished artist mentioned as having illustrated the 
discourse of Prodicus by brush or chisel. 

The only souvenirs thereof that are known to exist at the present 
day are two small vase-paintings, of little merit, and, in fact, hardly 
worthy of preservation, except from this connection. 

One of these is much better than its companion and is described 
in the "Annals of the Archselogical Institute," vol. iv., pp. 473- 
493. The other is mentioned by Bottiger, in the work above quoted. 
Welcker's essay is to be found in his " Kleine Schriften," pp. 393- 
541. 

208 




HERCULES, BY POLYKIiEITOS 



■I 



POLYKLEITOS AND HERCULES 

ideal of manly beauty, youthful and unbearded, witli no 
suggestion of untamed force or other brutal feature, 
except the swollen and lacerated pancratiast ears which 
invariably indicate his role as a boxer. In these respects 
the type was a great improvement on that of Myron and 
other artists of a preceding period. The bust which 
Polykleitos thus originated has survived in various 
replicas to this day, and Furtwtingler, in his " Master- 
pieces of Greek Sculpture," gives a photograph of one 
now in the collection at Broadlands in Hampshire, the 
former seat of Lord Palraerston and now of the Right 
Hon. W. Cowper Temple.^ It is known to represent 
Hercules by the rolled fillet that encircles his head and 
was his peculiar emblem as a victorious and glorified 
athlete. It is an eminent example of beauty in repose, 
calm and impassive, with a certain air of reserved force, 
"the hiding of his power," a perfect portrayal of that 
still harmony and blending softness of union which is 
the last perfection of self-contained strength; a noble 
psalm in marble. It was thus that Saint Bruno revealed 
himself to Houdon in that masterpiece of high artistic 
achievement at Rome in the church of Santa Maria 
degli Angeli. The features show no sign of any effort 
at characterization, but seem lit, as with an inner glow, 
by a sense of conscious triumph and the serene com- 
posure of a sweet and serious dignity, — a dignity that 
soars high above all earthly discords and the struggles 
of the arena. Though clearly not modelled with such 
intent, this work might well serve as the beau-ideal of 
a Miiller type, a Culture-hero, " who brought light out 
of night and was looked upon as the protector of law 
and order." 

It would be foreign to my subject to offer any further 

^ A photographic copy of this nohle head is given on the opposite 
page. 

14 209 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

development of this type of Hercules. I can only add 
that it proved the prolific germ of far resonant action, 
and soon became so popular -with the fellow-artists of 
its creator and with the people as well, that numberless 
copies were made as time moved on, chiefly for the 
adornment of palestrae and gymnasia, where, almost 
invariably in the form of a terminal bust, it presented 
the attractive aspect of grand and elevating beauty, " ever 
young and fine, like the rainbow." Its fame is attested 
by the numerous examples that have survived to this 
day, fifteen of which have been identified in Rome alone 
by Botho Graef, who has made them his special study. 
These are mostly, if not altogether, rej^licas of lovely 
originals, apparently done by Praxiteles or Skopas, 
though the replicas are not all of equal merit. These 
artists seem never to have wearied of this charming 
prototype, this seductive and inspiring model, which, 
like a strain of rich melody, was to them the source of 
a thousand variations, all essentially quick with the 
magnetic motif of their type, but each with its own 
peculiar character. At the hands of these successors of 
Polykleitos, who were nimbly responsive to the dictates 
of nature and filled the past with shining shapes, it 
became more emotional, more pathetic, more gracious, 
and more amply enriched with a depth of spiritual 
meaning than when it left his presence. Often crowned 
with a garland of poplar, vine or ivy leaves, delicately 
and graphically carved by a skilful artist, it delighted 
the eye and impressed it with the all-pervading power 
of genius, while it seemed, on its heaven-born mission, 
to rise like a pure white lily from the black and turbid 
depths of Herculean depravity. 

One of the very best of these, perhaps the best, was 
found at Gensano in 1777, and is now in the gallery of 
the British Museum. An engraving thereof is given in 

210 



THE GENSANO HERCULES 

Reseller's marvellously learned " Lexikon der Griechis- 
chen and Romischen My thologie, " 1890. The author 
highly praises it and traces its source to Praxiteles. He 
also mentions the "deep, soulful expression, as if the 
hero had known suffering, though yet filled with a rest- 
less striving." 

In this exhaustive work, no less than one hundred 
and sixty columns of fine print are given to Heracles, 
but the writer does not think it Avortli his while to 
devote a line to the Hercules of Prodicus, or even to 
mention the latter's name. 

A photograph of the above "term," taken expressly 
for this work, is to be found opposite the titlepage 
thereof. 

In the "Description of the Ancient Marbles in the 
British Museum," issued in 1812, it is said that this is 
decidedly a representation of Hercules : — 

" In the first place, the short, upright hair on the fore- 
head is peculiar to him ; secondly, the wreath encircling 
the head is composed of the poplar, a tree which was par- 
ticularly sacred to him, and, lastly, the bruised and lacerated 
appearance of the ears proves that it was certainly intended 
for Hercules, who is very seldom represented without these 
peculiar marks of injury. 

'< This head is in the finest preservation, the only restora- 
tion it has received being a trifling part of one of the rib- 
ands, or lemmisce, which fasten the wreath and descend 
on each shoulder. It was found in the year 1777 near 
Gensano, in the grounds belonging to the Cesarini family. 
Height, 1 foot 4f inches." 

To the above might have been added the fact that 
the right ear in particular is swollen and lacerated, and 
the left very little so. 

It is probable that few full-length figures, based on 

211 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

this type, were ever made. At any rate, only one is 
now known to exist, and that was found among the 
ruins of Hadrian's villa in 1790. From Italy it was 
taken to England, where it has been ever since in the 
gallery of Lansdowne House. Of this it is naturally 
the rarest and brightest gem, since it is generally re- 
garded as not only the finest male statue in England, 
but one of the best yet discovered. Of hejoic size and 
remarkably well preserved, it has the fillet of a victo- 
rious athlete drawn through the short and curly hair. 
The amply rounded chest, the massive shoulders, with 
their muscular beauty of outline, as of Atlas in his 
youth, proclaim a latent force, the graceful intimation 
of conscious strength. Though generally assumed to 
be a copy of an earlier work, the most learned and 
intelligent German critics assign its motif and first 
inception to Skopas, when in the ripening dawn of his 
faculties. Nothing can surpass the consummate loveli- 
ness of this marble masterpiece and the fulness of con- 
tent with which the eye rests upon its presentment of 
hale and heroic manhood united to fineness of nature 
and the tokens of delicate sensation. The sculptor had 
evidently quite disregarded the merely animal and 
muscular attributes of Hercules, and sought, by the 
magic of his gracious and endearing art, to portray him 
as a youthful demigod, serenely sensible of his perfect 
symmetry of form and feature, and radiant with that 
beauty which is "its o^vn excuse for being." This was 
a cou-p de maitre of which any artist might be proud, 
and one can hardly imagine how sculpture could exceed 
the harmony of fire and grace, the warmth of feeling 
and internal tenderness, the pregnant energy of attitude 
and the noble, unconstrained freedom of the whole 
movement that compose its strong individuality and are 
the proofs of its sjDiritual conception. Such is the 

212 




THE LANSDOWNE HERCULES 



HERAKLES KALLINOCHOS 

omnipotence of that genius, akin to the divine, which 
betokens the celestial birth of man and at times illu- 
mines the whole earth with the radiance of those 
"clouds of glory" which attend us "when we come 
from God, who is our home." ^ 

Under an aspect very similar to this must Hercules 
have appeared to the imagination of the poet Archilochus, 
three centuries before tlie time of Skopas, when he 
salutes him as "kallinochos," or brilliant victor. If the 
hero had been thus portrayed on the seal of the United 
States, instead of the huge and repulsive agglomeration 
of muscular tumors, whose protuberance is equalled 
only by their ponderosity, conceived by Lord Shaftes- 
bury after such infinite labor, and suggested by Adams, 
with outlines about as soft and graceful as those of " the 
stern and rock-bound coast" of his own native Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts, then might our country 
have done well to condone the evil doings of the demi- 
god in view of the divinity conferred upon him by 
genius and of the mighty incentive of such a form to 
national culture and the highest artistic feeling. 

Notwithstanding the general disdain of the sculptors, 
after lying hidden for the most part during nearly fif- 
teen hundred years, though with a rare outcropping at 
remote intervals, the " Judgment of Hercules " suddenly 
took its share in the rising splendor of the Renaissance 

1 This work was seen at Lansdowne House by Dr. AVaagen, who 
praises its "noble head and vigorous forms." He further adds, 
" .Judging by the treatment, an excellent work of the time of 
Adrian," i. e. about 100 A. D., which shows that art criticism has 
made great progress since that writer's day. 

Michaelis, however, says it is "unmistakably in the spirit of 
Lysippos," Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 1882. This opens a 
large area for indefinite discussion as to the actual author, though 
Furtwangler, Overbeck, and Roscher have decidedly the last innings, 
as they are decidedly superior to all their predecessors in compre- 
hensive learning, acute criticism, and sympathetic intelligence. 

213 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

and revealed itself as a fitting subject for the painter's 
art. It was represented on canvas by Pier di Cosimo in 
the first decade of the sixteenth century and by Annibale 
di Carracci and Nicholas Poussin in the seventeenth, 
who thus showed their faith by their works. To the 
last-named painter the classic origin of the subject and 
its atmosphere of ancient hero-worship made it pecu- 
liarly attractive, by the offer of an ample occasion for 
the display of his talents and his inherent enthusiasm 
for ancient art. His picture of Hercules is now in the 
well-known gallery of Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 
Bart., at Stonehead, Wiltshire. Though it can hardly 
be called one of his best works, it is certainly not a bad 
example. His subject is seen at once to be a painted 
statue taken (with the exception of the head), and that 
with remarkable fidelity, from the antique form of a 
youthful athlete. We here at once discern Poussin's 
chaste correctness of drawing and what Ruskin terms 
his "sternly Greek severity of treatment," his noble 
outlines and breadth and precision of hand. Here, also, 
are apparent his skill in composition; his elegance in 
the grouping and disposition of his figures; his truly 
grand and poetic feeling in landscape with that air 
of conscious self-reliance which so strongly character- 
ized his works. ^ It would appear from the three fig- 
ures that constitute the group of which Hercules is 

1 These qualities have been well exhibited by Sir Robert Strange, 
in his engraving of this painting by Poussin, and particularly of the 
figure of Hercules. No one was better fitted than he to do them 
justice, both from natural fondness for the antique and from his firm, 
definite, and essentially flowing lines. He is deservedly famous for 
the richness and transparency of his flesh, and in presence of his 
delicately rounded contours the lack of color is hardly missed. In 
this respect he adds, as it were, a certain degree of gilding to the 
refined gold of Poussin, who was not noted for his coloring, which he 
mostly tolerated merely as a necessary adjunct, as a sermon is an 
appendix to the text. 

214 







TUK t IIUICK OF IIEUCULKS. BY IH)L'SSIN 



HERCULES AND POUSSIN 

the centre, that the artist felt more strongly attracted 
towards his pihc de resistance than towards either Virtue 
or Vice. At any rate, they are not drawn with so 
much care or so much skill as Hercules, and one is 
driven to the irresistible inference that each of these 
allegorical creations merits much more credit than is 
generally given her, Vice for not making more efficient 
use of her bewitching charms than she did, and Virtue 
for resisting the hero's fascinations so long. The stand 
taken by the hero was nothing compared to that of the 
two heroines. Few could have long resisted the allure- 
ment of such a presence, and doubtless even Virtue 
removed herself as promptly as possible from an ordeal 
that must have been so extremely trying to all parties. 

It is remarkable that Poussin had plainly the same 
penchant for Hercules as that felt by Adams and 
Franklin, and for Moses also. He painted each of 
these characters at least a score of different times and 
under various forms and conditions. For none other of 
his numerous subjects did he display the same degree of 
interest and devotion, in spite of what Ruskin styles 
his "want of any deep sensibility," nor did he portray 
any others so often. It is even said that in his famous 
decoration on the ceiling of the Louvre, representing 
"Hercules destroying Folly, Ignorance, and Envy," the 
artist has given the demigod his own features. 



Paut VI 

Lord Shaftesbury and his Painting of the "Judgment of Hercules." — 
His Preparations for the Evolution of a Chef d'CEuvre. — Letters 
to his Friends. — Pierre Coste. — Philolopy. — Lord Shaftes- 
bury's "Notion." — Final Edition of his " Characteristicks." — 
Paolo di Matthaeis. — The Young Milo. — Hercules between 
Virtue and Pleasure. — Lord Shaftesbury's Engagement and 
Marriage. — Virtue on Canvas. — Virtue and her Hill. — Pleas- 
ure and her Traits. — Raphael, "the sociable spirit." 

It may be well as a matter of historic and collateral 
interest to give some account of the design proposed by 
Adams for our national seal and to describe its exact 
character. Though the subject itself had already been 
treated, as above stated, by Pier di Cosimo, Annibale 
Carracci, Poussin, and others, the peculiar aspect under 
which it had become familiar to Adams was due to the 
pretentious dilettanteism of the third Earl of Shaftes- 
bury, who fancied himself the possessor of a specially 
fine taste in art, and also imagined that a really great 
masterpiece could be as easily and successfully planned 
as a house or a ship; that it was not necessarily the 
inspiration of genius, but could be thought out by 
almost any person of average learning and talent, if 
sufficient time were bestowed upon it, and that all the 
essential features thus evolved could be imparted to a 
clever artist, who would portray them on canvas and 
produce a work, noble, fruitful, and immortal. With 
the view of testing this theory and of parading his own 
culture by the representation of an event of classic and 
literary interest. Lord Shaftesbury set to work upon the 
ingenious and plausible scheme which resulted in the 
painting of "The Judgment of Hercules." Upon 

216 



LORD SHAFTESBURY 

this scheme his Lordship was engaged while spending 
the last few months of his life at Naples in 1712-13. 
It was elaborated with much assiduity and incessant 
discussion, and his absorption therein is still attested by 
numerous carefully written pages on file with the 
" Shaftesbury Papers " in the Record Office at London. 
"When nothing farther could be done to insure success 
and no more suggestions could be offered by united 
ingenuity and learning, the various ideas of the noble 
inventor and his friends Avere committed to writing, for 
the benefit of the artist who was to carry them into 
execution. 

This subject naturally commended itself to Lord 
Shaftesbury's mind both from his moral sympathies and 
from his Socratic and other philosophical studies. He 
has left a short account of the circumstances under 
which his attention was first called to it in a letter to 
" Lord ******" ^i,e. Lord Somers] from Naples, dated 
"March 6, 1712." This is printed in his Lordship's 
works under the title of " A Letter concerning the Art 
or Science of Design ": — 

"For even this very Notion had its use chiefly from the 
Conversation of a certain Day which I had the happiness to 
pass a few years since in the Country with your Lordship. 
'T was there you shew'd me some Ingraviugs which had been 
sent you from Italy. One iu particular I well remember, 
of which the Subject the very same with that of ray written 
Notion inclos'd. But by what Hand it was done, or after 
what Master, or how executed, I have quite forgot. . . . 

" I resolv'd at last to engage my Painter iu the great 
work. Immediately a Cloth was bespoke of a suitable Di- 
mension and the Figures taken as big or bigger than the 
common Life, the Subject being of the Heroick kind and 
requiring rather such Figures as shou'd appear above ordi- 
nary human Stature." 

217 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Notwithstanding the above lucid explanation as to 
the origin of his picture, — an explanation which was 
written "a few years " after the occurrence of the facts 
narrated, — it seems more natural to suppose that Lord 
Shaftesbury's attention was first called to the artistic 
opportunities of the fable of Prodicus by the fine work 
of Poussin (to which reference has already been made, 
and which was in the gallery of the Hoare family about 
ten miles from his own seat in the adjoining county of 
Wilts), and had reflected how much better a work he 
could devise himself on a subject so attractive to his 
enterprising mind. He had never had occasion to 
learn, nor had been obliged to practise "the art of 
repression," and he would, of course, not for a moment 
doubt that he knew as much about painting as he pro- 
fessed to know about Moses, Homer, and Mr. Hobbes ; 
about Egypt and Greece ; about Prometheus and Queen 
Elizabeth ; about love and the ladies ; about Life, Liberty, 
"enthusiastic Atheists," and "the Leviathan Hypothe- 
sis," and very many other things too numerous to men- 
tion, on which he wrote without stint. 

This "Little Treatise," as Lord Shaftesbury styles 
it in his letter to Micklethwaite of Feb. 23, 1712, was 
at first so brief as to "come within the Compass of a 
Sheet of Paper," and was the result of " what had pass'd 
in Conversation with my Painters and some other Vir- 
tuosos with whom I can converse only in French." It 
was dictated in that language by his Lordship to Mr. 
Crell, his secretary, who afterwards "transcribed it 
from the foul," or first rough draught, for the instruc- 
tion of Paolo de Matthaeis, wdio under Shaftesbury's 
directions was to paint his "great Piece of History" 
aforesaid. It was subsequently corrected and, it would 
seem, expanded into a long essay by Mr. Coste, a 
Frenchman of learning and prominence, who was also a 

218 



PIERRE COSTE 

friend and correspondent of Shaftesbury, and had been 
requested by liim to " make this Piece truly original^ as 
it now is, by touching it up and converting it wholly 
into pure language with his masterly hand and genius " 
(from manuscript letter above quoted). 

Pierre Coste was a Huguenot savant, who had been 
banished by Louis XIV., — the curse of his nation and 
of his age, like the present German Emperor, — and had 
taken refuge in England. He was a voluminous and 
multitudinous writer of incorrect translations and dreary 
books, which served no other purpose than as an infal- 
lible remedy for insomnia. He translated the works of 
Locke and Newton's Optics; also a treatise on "Divine 
Love" and on the "Education of Children;" also 
various other books too numerous to mention. He also 
wrote a life of the Great Condd, a perfect flood of bio- 
graphical verbosity, a chute de paroles^ which well illus- 
trates "How the water comes down at Lodore." He 
wrote nothing about art, and there is no evidence that 
he knew anything about it. He seems to have been the 
very last person that would have been selected to cor- 
rect and enlarge even such an essay as that of Shaftes- 
bury, and he was apparently chosen because he was " the 
most senseless and fit man " for that office. The work 
thus polished and inflated was subsequently brought out 
anonymously in Paris and Amsterdam in the fall of 1712, 
under the supervision of Mr. Coste, with the title of 
" Raisonnement sur le Jugement d'Hercule." It achieved 
a succes cVcstime; and Micklethwaite, a well-seasoned 
sycophant, writes from London "December y° 23d, 
1712": — 

" Mr. Coste has gain'd great notice here only barely for 
Publishing Le Jugement d'Hercule, which Piece is wonder- 
fully Admired and Inquired after. I find it has been 
Twice painted in Holland single and in y* Paris Journall." 

219 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

A few months later in the same year it v/as translated 
into English and published in London. It is now to 
be seen in the " Characteristicks " of Lord Shaftesbury 
as "A Notion of the Historical Draught or Tablature 
of the Judgment of Hercules, according to Prodicus," 
— a title which compactly defines the heavy gambols 
and lumbering, affected style of its author. As it now 
appears, the treatise has expanded from "the compass 
of a sheet of paper " into nearly fifty big pages. 

The French reconstruction was begun through the 
agency of Micklethwaite, though Shaftesbury afterwards 
wrote to Mr. Coste himself: — 

" De Naples le 29' Mars, 1712, avec le MS. du Raisonne- 
ment sur le Jugement d'Hercule. 

" Voyez je vous prie, quelle extravagance ! Je vous ecris 
en Francois, moy qui de ma vie n'ay jamais n'en ecrit en 
cette langue que deux ou trois petites lettres par votre 
assistance. . . . Qu'il sache done et que vous sachiez qu'en 
cas que vous ne trouvez cette Pi^ce tout-a-fait mauvaise, je 
vous serai extremenient oblige si vous vouliez prendre la 
peine de la corriger d'un bout a I'autre et de la rendre, s'il 
est possible, originelle.^ Alors je n'auray pas honte de la 
monter a quelques uns de nos Virtuosi ; ce qui sera peut- 
etre a I'avantage du Tableau que je fais peindre actuelle- 
ment." 

From this extract it is plain that his Lordship was not 
a fluent writer of French, and that his style was tont-h-fait 
Franklinesque so far as that language was concerned. 

It is quite obvious that the whole of Lord Shaftes- 

^ This word, like the same word in the letter above quoted, seems 
strangely inappropriate and altogether self-contradictory. How 
could a writing be made " original " that was the united vocal con- 
tribution of several persons, and had afterwards been dictated to a 
scribe by one who only heard what these persons said and had then 
been "touched up and converted wholly into pure language" by a 
French writer a thousand miles away? 

220 



LETTERS OF LORD SHAFTESBURY 

bury's " Notion " is not bis own, but a sort of literary 
and artistic mosaic to which probably he supplied a fev/ 
bits here and there, though he afterwards adopted the 
sum total as his work. 

I give here a few excerpts from the letters of Lord 
Shaftesbury which have never before been in print, in 
order to show the progress of his proposed design and 
his characteristic attitude towards it, as well as his 
ambitious aims in its behalf. 

On the 23d of February, 1712, his Lordship writes to 
his friend Micklethwaite : — 

"... In the mean while I have a noble virtuoso scheme 
before me, and design, if I get Life this Summer to apply 
even this great Work (the History Piece bespoke and now 
actually working) to the Credit and Reputation of Philol, 

"I know that by what I have said I must have highly 
rais'd your Curiosity, which till next Post I am unable to 
Satisfy and then you shall have it all before you by the 
Copy of a Little Treatise (w'' Mr. Crell is now actually 
transcribing from the foul) written or rather dictated on 
this Subject of the Great Piece of History in Hand and 
which will come within the compass of a Sheet of Paper. 
But it being writ in French for y*^ Painter's Use, you can 
not have it in its right Condition till it be thought over 
anew and translated into its Naturel English. 'T will be in 
Mr. Coste's Power to make this Piece true original as it 
now is, by touching it up (as the Painter's Phrase is) and 
converting it wholly into pure Language with his masterly 
Hand and Genius. And in this Condition I could willingly 
consent he should carry it or send it over to his friend to 
be inserted in the very next Bib. Chois : of his Friend's 
Friend, Mens. Le Clerc. Now these Scholars and Great 
Men of Learning are (I know) very little given to these 
Virtuoso-Studies, yet I cannot but fancy that if Mr. Coste 
gave in to it heartily he could ingage them also and even 
without using authority or telling names, might introduce 

221 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the matter into y'' world, which afterwards might more 
agreeably and by a Gradual Discovery come to know this 

Author and that of Char chs to be the same. For by 

the time that this Little Treatise could be published a large 
Plate after the Great Piece wou'd be finish'd at Rome by 
an Exceir Ingraver, Condisciple with [my History Pain- 
ter and bred with him at Rome under Carlo Moral. . . . 

"But all this will depend on Mr. Coste, whether his 
Affairs or Humour (for in things of this Kind Fancy and 
humour must govern in the best men) will allow him to 
mind such a Virtuoso-Business as this. And in this Case 
you must ingage him with all to bring with him from Hol- 
land the best Edition or two (with Notes) of Cebe's Fable 
[? Table] with the ordinary ugly Prints (such as there are) 
of this beautiful Socratick Piece, which I shall have time 
to study at Leisure and fit for a Companion to this other 
Socratick, more simple, and (in painting) more exact, 
natural and just Piece of Prodicus now carrying on, and 
upon which I have corapos'd my little Treatise in French 
from what has pass'd iu Conversation with my Painters 
and some other virtuosos with whom I can converse only 
in that Language. So here at last you have my Secret out 
and if S'' John should in his comical way ask you * Well, 
Mick! What do you thinkmy Lord'' s ahatching? I believe 
it is a young 3filo.' You may tell him j'-es ; and that the 
Egg will be sent you ready peep'd (as y' Hen-housewives 
say) for you to bring forth and help the Chick into y" world. 
I can assure you a friend of yours said yesterday that the 
Face and Air of the young 3filo was mighty like you and 
so I really think, tho' it has not so much of the Adonis 
(you may believe) as my young hunting gentlemen in St. 
Giles's Cedar Room. 

" But this is not the only View Of Service which I ground 
on this chargeable and high attempt. Our present Great 
Minister, or at least some future one, may possibly have 
some compassion for y* poor Arts and Virtuoso-Sciences, 
which are in a manner bury'd here abroad and have never 
yet rais'd their Heads in Britain. It might be well for 

222 



"CHARACTERISTICKS" 

your joynt Interest ami S' John's as Friends to one Another 
and to me, if through your hands a Present should be 
made of a glorious Piece not only worthy of a Prime Min- 
ister, but even of the reigning Prince, or of some Prince of 
the Eoyal Family to whom the Piece itself may be a Coun- 
cil and Instruction. Pray lay this saying up in your 
]\Iemory, for I should hardly bestow my time and Pains 
with about fourscore Pistoles prime Charge and with so 
many consequent Expences for the sake of a Piece of Furni- 
ture merely for St. Giles's, or as a mere Ornament to 
PhiloV 

The word " Philol " used in this letter is an abbrevia- 
tion of Philolopy. It was evidently coined, as was 
"tablature," by Lord Shaftesbury for his o^vn private 
use and edification, and is another proof of his taste for 
fantastic conceits and frivolous oddities. If expressed in 
English according to the rules generally applicable to 
similar words of Greek derivation, it would mean "a 
fondness for husks." By his Lordship it was employed 
as a synonym for his "Characteristicks." This is 
apparent in a letter, now among the Shaftesbury Papers, 
from his friend Micklethwaite, dated "London, Aug. 
29, 1712." 

''He [Mr. D y] [i. e. Mr. Darcey,] assured me Two 

days ago that He has still a Hundred left of y*" first Edi- 
tion, which I must own provokt me very much, but it was 
of no use to tell him so. I know from y* Book-sellers how 
great a Fame Charac. [Characteristicks] have and how 
well they sell ; indeed for some months last past y*^ Town 
has been empty of all the Polite-Men, and what can we 
expect now ; how should Philolopy be minded here when 
both Partys are so taken up & divided betwixt Apprehen- 
sion k, Joy? Mr, Stanhope says Charac : will sell might- 
ily as soon as we have a Peace, Learning will come 
in Fashion & Philolopy be necessary; that it is the only 
Book in our Language where, &c., &c." 

223 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Sometime during the year 1712, the "Raisonnement" 
was transhited into English, and obviously, by Lord 
Shaftesbury himself,^ as it reveals many of his peculiari- 
ties of style and expression. In this way, he showed 
his approval of Mr. Coste's expansion and "touching 
up." This translation was published in 1713, though 
not in time for Lord Shaftesbury to see it in print, as 
he died on the 4th of February of that year. 

As might have been inferred from what I have 
written, the "Notion" contains the most minute direc- 
tions for the fabrication of a first-class work of art. It 
is a terror "di lavoro." Not a single item is omitted 
from the programme, the performance of which was to 
be attended by such perfect and foreordained success. 
No feature, no attitude, no expression, fails to be 
properly enumerated and to be fortified by appropriate 
citations from the best authors of antiquity. The 
treatise is composed in his Lordship's usual labored and 
bombastic style, and is an absurd farrago of obsolete 
nonsense, heavily weighted with Latin verses and fine, 

1 On Feb. 23, 1712, Lord Shaftesbury wrote to Micklethwaite: 
" But it being writ in French for y« Painters' Use, you cannot have 
it in its right Condition till it be thought over anew and translated 
into its Nature! English." From this it appears that the "right 
condition" of his treatise had not been attained by "the masterly 
hand and genius" of Mr. Coste, nor by his "touching up," nor by 
his "truly original and pure language." 

The publication was probably looked after by Micklethwaite, as 
is apparent from a letter of his to Lord Shaftesbury dated " London, 
Dec. 2.3d, 1712." 

" It was great satisfaction to me to find that you had thought of 
printing the Notion in English. I am more and more convinced that 

if I don't do it, some body else will, so that I have spoke to D y 

to get y" same paper as y Charac, and after Xmas holidays are 
over we shall begin to print it in y« very same manner and letter as 
the Letter of Enthusiam and I hope before that time we shall receive 
your Title-page. I am every day solicited by one or other about it 
and I have ventured to promise it shall be done." 

224 



I THE GLORIOUS PIECE 

* far-fetched phrases of distorted English; a wild fan- 
dango of a3sthetical speculations based on " The Unity 
of Design according to the just Rules of poetick Art." 
A typical souvenir of the writer, well padded with 
r pompous, pedantic, and prosy platitudes, it would always 
-serve to identify him to the remotest ages, as the 
» mummy of Nebuchadnezzar was recognized by his cud, 
when discovered by La3'ard among the ruins of Nineveh. 
'Dreary and mechanical, the whole production must 
have had a most depressing and paralyzing effect upon 
the painter, who was constrained by a liberal douceur to 
carry the author's notions into effect, and thus to pull 
the cord of the shower-bath that was to benumb and 
drench him from head to foot. 

" ' Ah,' said Hercules, responsive, 
' When that duffer takes the floor, 
I think of Erymanthus and 
My tussle with the boar.' " 

The engraver of his Lordship's fancies must have 
had quite as much to contend with as his painter. 

During the gestation of "the glorious piece," as he 
termed it, which was costing him so much thought, 
time, and money. Lord Shaftesbury was also devoting 
the last few months of his life to the equipment of a 
new and final edition of his "Characteristicks." This 
was to be not only a chef cVaicvre of the printer's art, but 
of the engraver as well, who was to decorate it with 
" Hirogliphics, both the Lapidary and Flourish kind" 
(liis Lordship was nothing if not obscure), designed by 
the author and engraved by Gribelin, one of the best 
artists in that line of his day. On " this great Concern 
of my Life " Lord Shaftesbury worked incessantly, 
apparently regarding it as the last bequest of a great 
genius to posterity. As he wrote to Micklethwaite, " If 
I live to see this, it will be my sufUcient Nunc Diinittis.^* 
15 225 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

The consummation of this exhausting " virtuoso-scheme" 
his Lordship unhappily failed to see, but the results were 
exactly what might have been expected. The designs 
were petty and finical, abstrusely labored, profoundly 
allegorical, and entirely void of artistic feeling. The 
arduous efforts of the engraver were dispersed among 
innumerable hindrances, and he probably saw his salva- 
tion in his patron's final departure. As an example of 
the instructions he was continually doomed to receive, 
scores of pages of which are yet to be read in the 
" Shaftesbury Papers, " the following extract may be of 
interest. It relates to a sketch which his Lordship had 
concocted for the second volume of his new edition, and 
which was a complicated assortment of small details, 
which were significant in the extreme to their inventor, 
but quite unmeaning to any one else. These do not 
occupy even a tenth part of the engraving, which is only 
about three and one -half inches square, and one can 
hardly realize the eye -blinding struggles of the engraver 
to give them the expression which his patron thought 
indispensable, though they enable one fully to appre- 
ciate the exact quality of the latter's feeling for art in 
any form. 

" 1. In the Top-Flourish, more Land and less Sea, as I 
said before. 

" 2. The Ants and Bees on either hand to be as plainly 
express'd as possible in so Little as this will be, and rather 
than fail to make a few Ants and Bees of a Larger Size (as 
nearer advanced and on a forwarder Ground) which may 
appear flying or creeping in the near Branches of the 
Grotesque work. 

" 3. In the Bottom Flourish you will observe the last 
Greek Letter v of the word irdvrwv is too near the next and 
the last word tV. Mr. Gribelin will Divide and place the 
three Words more regularly. 

226 



PAOLO DE MATTHAEIS 

"4. The Spider's Webb is not so exactly round and 
' regular as it ought to be, in this emblematical kind. The 
. Spider too in the Center must lye more round or orbicular 
' (suitable to the Orb hard by to which the Emblem relates) 
, and Flys caught in the Webb must be much smaller in 
: proportion and almost indiscernible. 

" 5. The Bird on the Nest, Mr. Gribelin will do very 
neatly, Leaving room for the appearance of the Young 
Birds-Heads in the Nest." 

■ And so on ad nauseam. 

The capo cCopera thus perfected in his Lordship's 

' brain, was produced on canvas some few months be- 
fore his death by Paolo de Matthaeis, an Italian of 

' good repute, who had done various frescos and other 
works for churches in Rome and Naples. He labored 
at his task of bricks without straw under the per- 
petual observation and guidance of his patron, who, of 
course, saw that there was at least as much of himself 
in the result as of his employee. As Shaftesbury wrote 
to Micklethwaite from Naples, Sept. 1, 1712: "Now 
concerning the Picture I shall say no more in modesty, 
since it carrys so much of my own Thought, Design, 
and I may allmost say. Workmanship along with it." 
In 1713 it was sent from Naples to the Shaftesbury gal- 
lery at Wimborne St. Giles, in Dorset, where it was 
promptly entombed, and where it still remains, while few 
or none ever care to go out of their way to see it. It is an 
excellent instance of the inevitable failure of any attempt 
to construct a masterpiece to order, however favorable 
the circumstances, however plausible the theory on 
which it is based, or however minute and learned the 
instructions. The painting would long since have been 
forgotten in deserved oblivion, had not a copy of it been 
engraved by Gribelin by Shaftesbury's order and pub- 
lished after his death with a most sumptuous edition of 

227 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

his crotchety lucubrations.^ Thus it comes to the sur- 
face at rare intervals, though, as it is vastly smaller 
than the original, its many demerits are far less con- 
spicuous. 

The outcome of this literary and artistic amalgama- 
tion was an arrangement of three figures — life-size — 
in the foreground, backed by a tumultuous display of 
trees, tapestry, vases, hills, and other impedimenta, sup- 
posed to be the "episodick Parts" necessary to the per- 
fection of the design, while Hercules in the centre leans 
on his club — almost the only thing on his person — 
apparently in order to support the superincumbent 
pressure of his huge and unelastic frame. "He looks 
towards Virtue," so we are informed by his Lordship, 
"earnestly and with extreme attention, having some 
part of the Action of his Body inclining still to-wards 
Fleas2ire, and discovering by certain Features of Con- 
cern and Pity, intermix'd with the commanding or con- 
quering Passion, that the Decision he is about to make 
in favor of Virtue cost him not a little." He is likewise 
so drawn as " neither by the opening of his mouth, or by 
any other sign, to leave it in the least dubious whether 
he is speaking or silent. For 'tis absolutely requisite 
that Silence shou'd be distinctly characteriz'd in Her- 
cules, not only as the natural effect of his strict atten- 
tion and the little leisure he has from what passes at 
this time within his heart, but in order withal to give 
that appearance of Majesty and Superiority becoming 
the Person and Character of pleading Virtue ; who by 

1 For some reason not very easy to explain, Lord Shaftesbury 
always terms his hero Milo in his letters. April 5, 1712, he writes 
to Micklethwaite: "My young Milo, or Herculean Tablature, has 
indeed succeeded to a wonder, and I am now actually getting it 
engraved on a noble large plate of a foot and some inches square. I 
may perhaps think of reducing this again to a less size for the several 
volumes of Philol.'''' 

228 



VIRTUE AND HERCULES 

her Eloquence and other Charms has ere this made her- 
self mistress of the Heart of our enamour'd Hero." If 
all this was meant by the mere silence of the hero, it is 
quite possible that there was no exaggeration after all 
in the volume of significance suggested by Lord Bur- 
leigh in "The Critic," when he "comes forward, shakes 
his head and exit." It is another proof of the truth of 
Dangle's remark that "there certainly is a vast deal to 
be done on the stage by dumb show and expression of 
face ; and a judicious author knows how much he may 
trust to it." 

Of the two seductive aspirants for the decision of 
Hercules, Virtue "stands well forward," as his Lordship 
prescribed, plantc-la^ with the air of having been made 
to order, like a "moral wax figger," ^ and swaddled in a 
cumbrous mass of redundant drapery. She is provided 
with a sword, like Paul; with a helmet, like Pallas; 
with a bit, like Pegasus, though the latter is not in her 
mouth ; otherwise she could not preach to Hercules at 
such great and somniferous length. 

Of these three emblems we learn from our author 
that the helmet and the bit are really essential to her 
complete outfit as expressing " the double effect of For- 
bearance and Indurance, or what we may otherwise call 
Refrainment and Support, and at the same time these 
are really portable Instruments, such as the martial 

1 In the same pose — ethical, characteristic, ostentatious, and 
statuesque-pictorial; with the same wealth of superabundant 
drapery and much massive and imposing support from admiring 
nature, architecture, and the writings of Xenophon — does his Lord- 
ship, as painted by Clostennan and engraved by Gribelin, still appear 
in the act of marshalling the way to his works, under the title of 
"The ITonorable Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, 
Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles and Lord Cooper of Pawlett." 
There he certainly dominates the situation, with the complacent air 
of one who has fully digested the past, the present, and the future, 
and hungers for more worlds to conquer. 

229 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

Dame, who represents Virtue^ may be well supposed to 
have brought along with her; " and he might have added 
"been sure to cause an abnormal sensation wherever 
she went, " with her flying artillery. 

Whether it is true that Virtue was modelled after 
the form and features of Lady Shaftesbur}-, will never 
be known, but the fact is intimated by the obsequious 
Micklethwaite in a letter dated London, Dec. 23, 1712. 

" All your Acquaintance that know Jj Shaftesbury and 
have any Eyes that way found a perfect resemblance of her 
in y*" Goddess of Virtue, not only her exact Side-Face, but 
her very Form and Limbs, and indeed y* Character is very 
suitable. There is somethiug more sublime and yet Easy 
in y* whole Picture than in any I ever saw." 

This incense must have been intended by INIickle- 
thwaite as a return in kind for his confrere" s blarney in 
his letter of Feb. 23, 1712. "I can assure you," wrote 
his Lordship, " a friend of yours said yesterday that the 
Face and Air of the young Milo \i. e. Hercules] was 
mighty like you, and so I really think, tho' it has not 
so much of the Adonis." 

Luckily for his peace of mind and self-complacency, 
Micklethwaite had not then seen the painting, nor did 
he see it till after his Lordship's death, when he must 
have been much impressed with his appearance " in the 
skanderlus attire of the Greek slave." 

Lord Shaftesbury, in spite of his profusion of " Char- 
acteristicks, " did not succeed in winning the charmer 
that had taken his fancy, and had become very loath to 
marry at all. His nearest relations, however, were 
fearful that the deistical dynasty might come to an 
abrupt end, and as the result of their persuasions, his 
lordship finally chose "the youngest daughter to late 
M^ Ewer, of Hartf ordshire ; her mother a Montague, 

230 




,Ti'/.-.'tr>"i.i'> .^I'lx 



fim.ljril'.-'/in J'cith 



LORD SIIAKTKSHLHY, BY CLOSTERMAN 



LADY SHAFTESBURY 

grand Daughter to the old Lord Manchester.'* As he 
writes to his friend Wheelock, " Windsor, Aug. 8. 
1709": — 

"Those who have bjen ungrateful, unworthy and treach- 
erous friends, will be thunder-struck with this account when 
they hear w' they so little expected, believing all ray 
Talks of Marriage to be only threats or boasts ; and that 
if anything tempted me it would not be so much my Fam- 
ily's preservation and y* Concern of children, as Riches, 
Interest, or at least Witt, Beauty, or some of those tempting 
objects 'w'^^ they thought I was by my retirement safe 
from. So y' they look'd on me as a safe deceasing Batch- 
elour y' would leave no Issue behind me, nor indeed any 
thing but my crabed Books, Writings and Philosophy. But 
they will be surpriz'd by this day or To-morrow seven 
night when I shall send 'em an account of my being the 
3d or 9th day after to be marry'd to a very yoxing Lady : 
not for Love's sake (since I never saw her till the match 
was resolved on), nor yet Riches, but for my Family's sake 
only and my own Ease in a private and Country Life. But 
I can now tell you (w'^'' I could not before) that I have 
seen the Young Lady and I protest I think she is injured 
in having been represented to me as no Beauty, for so I 
writ you word before I had seen her : Whether I am par- 
tial, I cant say positively, for when one comes, as I did, 
to y" sight of one whom we had chosen by Character and 
had determined to be one's Wife, one may be allow'd to be 
a little byass'd in judgment as to y* person and appearance 
of y* Lady. One may be supposed to see with other Eyes 
than ordinary, and 'tis fitt it should be so. Therefore with 
these other Eyes of mine let me tell you I think I was 
wrong when I said from common Report y' she was no 
Beauty, for I think her a very great Beauty. ^^ 

There is nothing but the flattery of Micklethwaite to 
prove that she, Lady Shaftesbury, bore any likeness 
whatever to the Virtue in the picture, but if, when 

231 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

thus got up for exhibition, she did detect any resem- 
blance, she could hardly have been exhilarated to find 
herself discoursing at large to a society so mixed, so 
dubious, and in such an extremely scanty dcsliahilU. 

But to return to Lord Shaftesbury's complicated 
goddess. 

She rests awkwardly (and superfluously, it would 
seem) "with her full poise upon one foot, having the 
other a little advanced and raised on a broken piece of 
ground or rock, instead of the Helmet or little Globe 
on which we see her usually setting her foot," all which 
sounds quite plausible ; but the inevitable effect of her 
forced and stilted attitude on the spectator is that, if 
Virtue were to remove her foot (it is a very big foot 
too, like the foot of a mountain and clearly made 
for use. No. 10 at least) from that rock for a single 
instant, the whole mechanism would come apart in 
tumbling ruin and cover the ground with its disjecta 
incmhra. 

The goddess emphasizes her remarks by pointing 
towards the almost inaccessible heights which Hercules 
is to mount as the reward of her eloquent persuasions ; 
though how this is to be done by a demigod weigliing 
at least a quarter of a ton and simply dressed in a little 
brief lion's-hide, so little and so brief that it really hides 
nothing, — non constat^ as the lawyers say. 

The role of the Shaftesbury Virtue ^ is evidently to 
point out steep paths to others and not to climb herself, 
though the noble author plainly wishes his readers to 

1 As Mandeville observes in his " A Searcli into the Xature of 
Society," "The calm Virtues recommended in tlie ' Characteris- 
ticlis ' are good for notliing but to breed Drones and miglit qualify a 
man for the stupid Enjoyments of a Monastick Life, or at least a 
Country Justice of the Peace, but they would never fit him for Labor 
or Assiduity or stir him up to great Atchievments and perilous 
Undertakings." 

232 



VIRTUE AND HER HILL 

understand that Virtue knew all about it and had been 
there already and could climb on an emergency, as he 
goes on to state that she was " neither lean, nor of a 
tanned Complexion, and must have discovered by the 
Substance and Color of her Flesh that she was suffi- 
ciently accustomed to Exercise." This would naturally 
be a sine qua non., if she were obliged every night before 
retiring to her chaste couch to leave the machine to look 
after itself and mount to her abode on the heights afore- 
said, though it strikes the average spectator as rather 
mysterious that she strives so mightily to induce Her- 
cules to accompany her, and thus expose her verbosity 
to misconstruction on the part of those who had never 
shared the advantages of a charitable eye and ear 
infirmary. 

Ever since the time of Hesiod, ^ about eight centuries 
before the Christian era. Virtue seems to have been 
accompanied by a hill wherever she went, and she evi- 
dently needed it in her business. All the Greek poets 
— Pindar, Tyrtseus, Simonides, and many others — 
clearly took this view of her, as an otherwise unpro- 
tected female, and looked upon a hill as her indispen- 
sable vade mecum. Hence, if her votaries couldn't 
climb, her influence was of no avail and she had no 
farther use for them. It was evidently her peculiar 

1 "But before Virtue the immortal gods have set exertion; and 
long and steep and rugged at the first is the way to it, but when one 
shall liave reached the summit, then truly it is easy, difficult though 
it be before." — Works and Days, 2(>4 fol. 

This passage is quoted in the Protagoras, where it is placed by 
Plato in the mouth of Socrates, as if uttered by him: "I dare say 
that Prodicus would say, as Hesiod says," etc. This will account for 
the prominent part taken by the hill in the " Judgment of Hercules " 
as narrated byXenophon and in all the pictorial illustrations thereof, 
more conspicuously in the painting by Poussin. In every phase of 
its presentment, the hill greatly intensifies the whole situation and 
forms its largest feature and most prominent motif. 

233 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

mission, like that of Job, to "strengthen the feeble 
knees." ^ A hill was then as necessary to her voca- 
tion as a hump to a camel, which, though homely 
and slow, is very correct in its habits and sensitively 
virtuous. As he feeds chiefly on the passionate and 
seductive bean, abominated by the chaste Pythagoras 
(who had nothing of the Yankee in hira, unfortu- 
nately), he fears that he may be tempted from the 
paths of rectitude, and there being no hills in the 
desert (nor could he climb them if there were, any 
more than he could skate), he takes his own with 
him, that it may serve him as a refuge and sup- 
port when the shades of night are falling fast and 
his tuneful voice, like a bagpipe crying in the wilder- 
ness, fails to afford him the comfort and solace for 
which he longs. Thus fortified by an eminence on his 
own premises, in his back yard, as it were, he is ever 
subject to the all-pervading stimulus of its invigorating 
presence and rests secure from temptation. 

" The shelter of his hump 
Is sweeter than the roofs of all the world." 

Such was the aspect under which Virtue secured the 
cordial approval of Adams and which he wished to have 
employed as a feature of the seal of the new republic 
and thus be kept perpetually en evidence before her 
youth. Whatever else may be said, she was certainly 
"founded on a rock," like the rising nation, and though 
the rains might descend and the floods come, she would 
be a reliable type for the guidance of posterity. 

If we now turn from the form of Virtue to that of 

1 It is to be noticed that none of the poets, from Hesiod to 
Milton, ever represented Virtue as toiling upward herself, but merely 
doing her exemplary best to urge others in that direction. As Milton 
says, — 

" She can teach thee how to climb 
Higher than the sphery chime." 
234 



PLEASURE IN ART 

' Pleasure, we again realize the indebtedness of higli art 
' to the philosophic inductions of Shaftesbury. 

"That which makes the greatest difficulty in the Dis- 
position or Ordonnance of this Figure Pleasure, is, that 
' notwithstanding the supine Air and Character of Ease and 
Indolence which shou'd be given her, she must retain still 
' so much life and Action as is sufficient to express her 
persuasive Effort and Manner of Indication towards her 
proper Paths ; those of the flowery kind and Vale below, 
whither she wou'd willingly guide our Hero's steps. Nor 
shou'd this Effort be over-strongl}'- express'd ; not only the 
supine Character and Air of Indolence wou'd be lost in this 
Figure of Pleasure ; but, what is worse, the Figure Avou'd 
seem to speak, or at least appear, so as to create a double 
Meaning, or equivocal Sense in Painting; which wou'd 
destroy what we have establish'd as fundamental, concern- 
ing the absolute Reign of Silence thro' out the rest of the 
Piece in favour of Virtue, the sole speaking Party at this 
Instant, or third Period of our History. 

" According to a Computation, which in this way of 
Reasoning might be made of the whole Motion or Action to 
be given to our Figure of Pleasure ; she shou'd have scarce 
one fifth reserv'd for that which we may properly call 
Active in her and have already her persuasive or indicative 
Effort. All besides shou'd be employ'd to express (if one 
may say so) her Inaction, her Supineness, Effeminacy and 
indulgent Ease." 

Being thus shrewdly and judiciously laid out in sec- 
tions by one pen, like Philadelphia by another, Inac- 
tion, Supineness, Effeminacy and indulgent Ease, 
one-fifth each, and another fifth, Action, we are hardly 
isurprised to see "the lolling lazy Body" of the tempt- 
ing Dame prone on the ground with hardly more drapery 
on her exuberant and alluring person than on that of 
Hercules, who looks aggravatingly towards Virtue in 
silent absorption of her eloquent lecture and pays no 

235 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

attention to the "one-fifth Action" on which Pleasure 
lias risked so much. Evidently in her case, as in that 
of Alice's watch, Hercules didn't "go," because even 
"the best butter didn't suit the worlds," nor did his 
Lordship intend that it should, for he had planned from 
the first to award the palm to Virtue, though he admits 
that Pleasure "is of a relish far more popular and 
ingaging than virtue," as his poetical admirers plainly 
showed. 

Alas, poor Pleasure! If it hadn't been for that ill- 
advised "one-fifth Action," all might have gone well 
with her and the issue might have been very different. 
Her business has always been simply to allure and that 
of Virtue to lecture, and so it will probably continue to 
the end with ever-increasing persistence.^ 

1 "When the Deity sends Eaphael, "the sociable spirit," to dis- 
course at length to Adam and Eve, Milton styles him "the angelic 
Virtue," and he proceeds to assert his claim to the title to the extent 
of over 2500 lines of heroic verse, to the apparent satisfaction of 
Adam, who had hardly heard more than this at one time, even from 
Eve, and who thought " Virtue " still speaking after he had ended. 



Part VII 

Franklin and " Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." — Brad- 
shaw's Epitaph. — Bradshaw and Hancock. — Bradshaw's Ex- 
ecution, — Franklin's Hand in the Epitaph. — Edwards's History 
of Jamaica. — Bev. George W. Bridges and his Letter. — Brad- 
shaw's Family and Estate. — Memoir of Thomas HoUis. — 
Thomas Brand HoUis and his Fantastic Escapades. — The 
Idiosyncrasies of Thomas Hollis. — Franklin and HoUis. — John 
Adams and his Dissertation. — The various Tributes of Thomas 
Hollis to Human Worth. — Mr. and Mrs. Adams and Thomas 
Brand Hollis. — Style and Peculiarities of the Epitaph. — Jeffer- 
son and the Epitaph. — Great Seal of Virginia. — Prof. Girardin 
and the Epitaph. — Virginia Coat of Arms. — The Hauteur of 
Virginia. — Wythe and the Seal of that State. — Jefferson and 
the Emperor Augustus. — Sic Semper Tyrannis, the Great Seal 
of Virginia. — Wythe its Author. — Wythe and Adams. — Dr. 
Stiles and the Epitaph. — Franklin and Dr. Stiles. — The Doctor's 
Fandangoes, Historical and Other. — His "History of the Three 
Judges." 

Before proceeding farther with my subject, I wish 
to say a few words in regard to the origin, the history, 
and the marvellous popularity of the famous phrase, 
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," which was 
proposed by Franklin as the motto for our national seal, 
and which thus gained a still further hold upon the 
hearts of the people, — a hold, it may be well said, all 
the stronger and more impressive from the fact that it 
was the only motto offered by either of the committee. 
Never did any sentiment receive a more cordial wel- 
come from those to whom it was addressed. From its 
very advent it seems to have awakened a prompt 
approval and a fervent amen, an "everlasting yea," 

237 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

from every heart throughout the land, and no aphorism 
connected with our history ever secured a wider or 
more lasting fame. It was the symbol and the herald of 
the Declaration of Independence and the very soul and 
embodied expression thereof. It was the compact creed 
and the clarion note of every son of liberty, and his 
inspiration and refreshment as well, since far and wide 
it was seen that the sentiment it expressed was based 
upon the solid foundation of eternal truth; that truth 
for which all the colonists were then preparing to fight, 
even unto death. The phrase first came to be generally 
known about two months after the burning of Portland 
in October, 1775, when the whole country was seething 
with indignation, like a boiling geyser. This had been 
done by the orders of General Gage "with savage 
cruelty and despotic barbarity." General Greene then 
said, "Fight or be slaves is the American motto," and 
this soon found its echo in "Rebellion to tyrants is 
obedience to God." 

This was first printed in the " Pennsylvania Evening 
Post " ^ for Dec. 14, 1775, and formed the conclusion of 

1 The " Post " was a tri-weekly paper which was started in January, 
1775. It was the property and the enterprise of Benjamin Towne, 
who up to the beginning of the Revolution had done nothing to ex- 
cite suspicion of his fidelity to the popular cause. Subsequent events 
proved him to be a turn-coat and a trimmer, with no preference for 
anything but his own interest. He was ultimately proscribed and 
outlawed by the government of his State and ended his political gyra- 
tions, by signing and publishing his "humble confession, declara- 
tion, recantation and apology, hoping that it will assuage the wrath 
of my enemies and in some degree restore me to the favor and indul- 
gence of the Public." This was dictated to Towne by the famous 
patriot. Dr. Witherspoon, and nothing more humorous or entertain- 
ing of its class was ever published before or since. The writer says, 
i)iter alia : " I hope the public will consider that I have been a timor- 
ous man, or, if you will, a coward, from my youth, so that I cannot 
fight — my belly is so big that I cannot nm — and I am so great a 
lover of eating that I cannot starve." He also says in a practical, 

238 



BRADSHAW'S EPITAPH 

a piece afterwards entitled "Bradshaw's Epitaph." 
This was undoubtedly the composition of Franklin, 
though it was printed anonymously and there was no 
mention of the writer's name in the "Post," nor was 
there any reference to the work in any subsequent num- 
ber, as I can testify from a careful examination of the 
files of the paper now in the library of the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania. Though the epitaph is old 
and has long been familiar to the world, I offer no 
apology for reprinting it here, as I wish to do my work 
thorouglily, and the copy is taken from the original 
imprint verhatim et literatim. There is no title or other 
heading than the ensuing paragraph : — 

" The following inscription was made out three years ago 
on the cannon near which the ashes of President Bradshaw 
were lodged, on the top of a high hill near Martha Bray in 
Jamaica, to avoid the rage against the Eegicides exhibited 
at the Restoration : 



argumentative way: " Now pray what harm could incredible lies do? 
The only hurt, 1 conceive, that any lie can do is by obtaining belief 
as a truth; but an incredible lie can obtain no belief, and therefore 
at least must be perfectly harmless." That a truly grand and noble 
sentiment like this motto should have been first given to the world 
by such a man is very sad, but Towne probably thought the whole 
epitaph " an incredible lie " (which to an intelligent mind it clearly 
was, from an historical point of view, like the story of Polly Baker 
that had already appeared from Franklin's pen, a work written with 
good intent and from no sinister motives, so far as can now be 
judged). The editor seems to have attached no particular impor- 
tance to the last sentence, nor could he have foreseen that the last was 
eventually to become the first, nor could he possibly have imagined 
what an infinite deal of good "an incredible lie " might accomplish 
under certain favorable conditions. This has already been hereinbe- 
fore shown in the case of Hercules and his successful exploitation by 
Prodicus. In this respect Franklin and Prodicus were a par nobile 
fratrum and so far as Hercules and Bradshaw were concerned, 
accomplished the same results and mounted to " the brightest heaven 
of human invention." 

239 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



STRANGER, 

Ere thou pass, contemplate this cannon, 

Nor regardless be told 

That near its base lies deposited 

The Dust of 

JOHN BRADSHAW, 

^Vho, nobly superior to all selfish regard, 

Despising alike the pageantry of courtly splendour, 

The blast of calumny and the terrors of royal vengeance, 

Presided in the illustrious baud 

of heros and patriots 

who fairly and openly adjudged 

CHARLES STUART, 

Tyrant of England, 

To a public and exemplary death; 

Thereby presenting to the amazed world. 

And transmitting down, through applauding ages. 

The most glorious example 

Of unshaken virtue, love of freedom and impartial justice. 

Ever exhibited on the blood-stained theatre of human action. 

O, reader! 

Pass not on till thou hast blessed his memory, 

And never — never forget 

THAT REBELLION TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE 

TO GOD."i 

The writer of the above, whether Franklin or another, 
was evidently a man of rare shrewdness and penetration, 
with a spirit touched to fine issues and easily swaying 
level with the temper of his time and with those politi- 
cal principles that animated the very air the people 
breathed. The story he told was altogether improbable 
and impossible, and as fabulous as "The Choice of 
Hercules." It was contradicted by historical facts and 
by all contemporary testimony; but what did it all 

1 The wide dissemination of this epitaph seems to be conclusively 
proved by the fact that all the copies, except that of Dr. Stiles, offer 
various decided differences from the original and from each other in 
the spelling, the punctuation, the language, and the arrangement of 
the lines, while that in the Hollis memoir has quite another 
heading. 

240 



JOHN BRADSHAW 

matter ? He knew his ground, his readers, and his own 
resources, and he had sufficient knowledge of human 
nature to foresee the effects that were sure to follow. 
What though poor old Bradshaw's bod}'- was well known 
to have been hung on the gibbet and then buried under 
it, while his head had been seen and recognized by- 
thousands at the end of a pole in Westminster Hall? 
What though the transfer of his ashes to Jamaica v/as 
a simple and preposterous absurdity? What though 
the engraving on a cannon — a royal symbol — of an 
epitaph as long as a chapter from Isaiah was purely- 
ridiculous ? How insignificant were all these criticisms 
compared with the eloquent enunciation of glorious 
thoughts on a glorious theme to applausive and appre- 
ciative thousands who cared not a jot for facts, if they 
only got inspiring fiction based on undying truth ! The 
effect was immediate and widespread. The epitaph 
was at once welcomed as a mighty aid to the cause of 
liberty and a noble tribute to a noble character, — a 
character that freedom, through the hard friction of 
adversity and oppression, had moulded for its own. 
Storied high with honorable records of manly achieve- 
ment and rich with recognition of sterling worth, its 

I final utterance crowned it like a dome ; as it were, a 
republican Pantheon in air, which all succeeding ages 
might worship, but never desecrate or destroy. 

The name selected for the subject of the epitaph and 
the source of its teachings was chosen with a rare felic- 
ity and an apt sense of the opinions prevalent among 

; the colonists, who were at that time ripe for liberty and 
for any sacrifices in its behalf. To them John Brad- 
shaw was a name of power and the embodiment of 

'.triumphant virtue, for he had been not only the 
stanchest republican of his age, but of a consistency 
that had enabled him to defy even his great leader, 
16 241 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Cromwell.^ He was, in truth, the John Hancock of his 
generation in more senses than one. As President of 
the High Court of Justice that condemned Charles 
Stuart, he acted with stalwart courage, manliness, and 
a total disregard of personal consequences; pronounced 
sentence of execution upon him as a tyrant, murderer, 
and traitor; and finally signed his death-warrant, as the 
chief of the fifty-nine regicides, who, nobly daring, were 
glad to risk their all in a cause of the most desperate 
issue. 

Like Bradshaw, Hancock, — two men " sent from 
God, whose name was John," — with quite as much at 
stake, faced the future with no backward glance, and 
like him, presided over the fifty-six American regicides, 
who, equally confiding in the greatness of their cause, 
denounced George Guelph as a tyrant, murderer, and 
traitor, and sentenced him to the forfeiture of his sover- 
eignty over this land ; like liim, he was the first to sign 
the mighty and crushing indictment which served as 
that monarch's death-warrant, and he did it with a still 
more bold, defiant, and aggressive hand. 

In 1775 Bradshaw was almost universally regarded 
by the fathers of the republic as a bright exemplar for 
heroes and patriots, and his name, to use the words of 

^ In the stanchness of his republicanism, his sense of personal 
independence, and the liberty of expressing his own opinions, Brad- 
shaw reminds one strongly of John Adams, who called the Royal 
Martyr, " the booby Charles," and Cromwell, " a canting dog." (See 
letter to Thomas Brand-Hollis, April 9, 1788.) 

" It seems probable, however, that the more the details of his life 
are investigated, the more conspicuous will the general integrity 
and honesty of his character appear, and it will become more and 
more apparent that throughout the whole of his life he was actuated 
by the most disinterested motives for what he considered the advan- 
tage of his native country." (Vol. ii., p. 73, of "East Cheshire, Past 
and Present," by J. P. Earwaker, 1880, an author of great repute for 
his learning and accuracy.) 

242 



MILTON'S PANEGYRIC 

Milton's panegyric in his "Defensio Secunda," was 
" commended by Liberty herself for everlasting remem- 
brance and celebrity wherever she is cherished," and 
" with it will be associated the praise of the great deeds 
of the Commonwealth among foreigners and posterity 
through all time to come."^ 

The achievements of Bradshaw and his associate, as 
recorded by the pen of Milton, were fitly preceded by 
the eloquent prelude of that noble masterpiece, which 
was not only a well deserved tribute to the greatness of 
the Commonwealth, but seemed, as it were, prophetic 
of the work that was to be accomplished a century later 
by the founders of our own nation. As in Milton's 
day, so in 1776, "the eminent valor of the citizens, with 
a grandeur and constancy of mind surpassing all that 
can be praised in their forefathers, was able, after due 
invocation of God, and all the while following his most 
manifest guidance, to achieve, by a series of acts and 
examples, the bravest since the world was made, the 
deliverance of the State from a heavy thraldom, and of 
Religion from a most unworthy servitude." 

It is thus that Truth to Truth and Liberty to Liberty 
speaks in trumpet tones across the hollow deeps of time, 
and it was thus that the career of John Bradshaw 
became a burning and a shining light to the age of John 
Hancock, so that the sons of Liberty, more than a 
century after his death, found a great and general re- 
freshment in the perusal of his noble and well de- 
served epitaph. 

No historical statement was ever more widely known, 
more universally admitted, or more fully confirmed by 

1 " Second Defence for the English People, by John Milton, Eng- 
lishman, in reply to an Infamous Book entitled ' Cry of the King's 
Blood to Heaven against the English Parricides,' London, from 
Newcome's Press, 1654." 

243 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

contemporary evidence of the most convincing descrip- 
tion ^ than that relating to the barbarous treatment 
inflicted upon the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Brad- 
shaw, and their subsequent disposition, after the Res- 
toration. It certainly offers a farther proof of the 
marvellous intelligence of Franklin and of his clear 
insight into the future and of his thorough grasp of 
the situation, that in the face of all this broadside of 
overpowering testimony he should have presumed to 
invent and to print that preposterous fable, that bare- 
faced imposition on the credulity of the people, relying 
solely on the plausible assumptions of a winning style 
and on the sympathetic temper of his readers, who, as 
his wisdom led him to foresee, would be only too glad 
to welcome any tale, however absurd, that agreed with 
their own hopes and inclinations. The whole scheme 
reveals the very audacity of genius and of that fertility 
of resource for which he was noted to the end. 

1 In the appendix to "The Life of Oliver Cromwell" by William 
Harris one finds the following contemporary records cited: — 

" Jan. 30. o. s. • ' The odious carcasses of O. Cromwell, H. Ireton, 
and J. Bradshaw drawn upon sledges to Tyburn, and being pulled 
out of their coffins, there hanged at the several angles of that triple 
tree till sunset. Then taken down, beheaded, and their loathsome 
trunks thrown into the deep hole under the gallows. Their heads 
were afterwards set upon poles on the top of Westminster Hall.' 
Gesta Brittanorum, at the end of Wharton's Almanach for 1663." 

To this is added a copy of the mason's receipt for his share in the 
disgraceful outrage : — 

" May the 4th day, IGGl, Reed then in full of the worshipful 
Serjeant Norfolke, fifteen shillings, for taking up the corpses of 
Cromwell and Ireton and Bradshaw. Rec. by mee, John Lewis." 

These are but two among hundreds of similar proofs that could not 
be refuted. It is probable that the infamous character of this whole 
business had its share in Franklin's choice of the subject for his 
fable, as, whether believed or not, it would inevitably call attention 
to the nature of royalty itself in general, when imrestrained, and to 
that of a predecessor of George III. in particular. See also the MS. 
Diary of Thos. Rugge in the British Museum, Jan. 30, 1660-61, and 
the Diary of Pepys for the same date and for Feb. 5th. 

244 



FRANKLIN'S STYLE 

A more positive, creditable, and expressive illustra- 
tion of Franklin's peculiarities as a writer than the 
Bradshaw epitaph, it would be hard to find. It seems 
the fit and natural outcome of his mental temperament 
and of the same features that had already characterized 
his work. One of his strongest points was his ready 
invention of plausible, ingenious, and edifying fictions, 
submitted to the world with a wonderful appreciation of 
human nature and with that quiet assurance which so 
often is the pioneer of success. Parables, poems, fables, 
stories, allegories, parodies, all flowed with genial 
fluency from his pen, and had the quickening effect of 
happy examples saved from the wreck of the past for 
the guidance and profit of the future. Richly set with 
specious incidents and amply suited to the needs of the 
hour, they were ever invigorated by a rich vitality like 
the revelations of Gulliver or Crusoe. Invariably based 
on sensible, useful, shrewd, or patriotic truths, they 
were thoroughly impregnated with soundness of judg- 
ment and a general sense of the claims, the aspirations, 
and the innate sympathies of mankind. 

As to the epitaph, the spirit of a master pervaded it 
from the first line to the last. The undaunted public 
spirit it revealed, and the liberal tone of thought; the 
praise of virtue, freedom, and justice that enlightened 
it; the stern defiance of the final slogan flung in the 
face of royalty, — all pointed to one man as its author 
and the visible type of its sentiments. Surely no other 
at the time of its publication could have thus realized 
the feelings of his fellow-countrymen and have given 
them such forcible, apt, and far-reaching impetus. 
The last line has the genuine Franklin ring, sterling 
and true, and it must strike every unprejudiced mind 
as eminently worthy of its author and entitled to the 
highest rank among the myriad-shapes of condensed 

245 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

wisdom which he was wont to give forth for the benefit 
of the world. 

In confirmation of my claim that there is no evidence 
of the existence of the Bradshaw myth before the year 
1775, and that Franklin wrote the epitaph and probably 
invented the story, I add here a j^aragraph from " The 
History of the British Colonies in the West Indies," 
book ii. chap. iii. note d. This work is well known to 
be one of authority and ability. It was first published in 
1793, and the author, Bryan Edwards, had spent nearly 
thirty years in the Island of Jamaica, where he gained 
vast wealth, and after returning to England became a 
member of Parliament. 

" It is reported, also, that the remains of President Brad- 
shaw were interred in Jamaica; and I observe in a splen- 
did book, entitled Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, an epitaph 
which is said to have been inscribed on a cannon that was 
placed on the President's grave ; but it is, to my own 
knowledge, a modern composition. President Bradshaw 
died in London, in November, 1659, and had a magnificent 
funeral in Westminster Abbey." 

This passage is mentioned by the Rev. George W. 
Bridges in his "Annals of Jamaica," published in 1826, 
vol. i. chap. vii. note Ivii., and he offers this comment 
thereon : — 

"But in Edwards's history of Jamaica another circum- 
stance is reported, which distracts the question still more ; 
for he mentions a prevailing report that President Brad- 
shaw died in Jamaica and that a cannon was placed upon 
his grave, bearing an appropriate inscription.^ This must 
be entirely without foundation," etc, etc. 

^ "Where could the cannon for such a purpose have been obtained? 
IIow could it have been engraved in a rural community, like Jamaica, 
that had no competent artisans? How could the plan have been 

246 



BRYAN EDWARDS 

After the above had been edited, Mr. Bridges changed 
his mind, for in his second volume, wliich appeared in 
1828, chap. x. note iv., we find a long note contra- 
dicting his previous opinions. It is based on a letter 
supposed to have been written by Bryan Edwards, 
Jan. 13, 1775, the original of which Mr. Bridges claims 
to be in the possession of a branch of the Bradshaw 
family living in England in 1828. There is nothing 
to show where it was written or to whom. Both the 
note and the letter will be found in the supplement to 
this volume. They are not included in the text, partly 
because they are too prolix and circumstantial to be 
given here; partly because they are useless for my 
purpose, since the letter on which the author's remarks 
are chiefly founded is undoubtedly spurious. I have 
come to this conclusion for these reasons: — 

1st. The statements in the letter are absurd and pre- 
posterous, and the incidents cited therein could never 
have taken place. 

2d. Such a letter could never have been composed 
by one who eighteen years after its date wrote the para- 
carried into execution without the discovery of the royal authorities, 
who would certainly have put an emphatic veto upon it? How 
could a cannon have been drawn to the top of a high hill through a 
roadless jungle or intricate forests, in a tropical country inhabited 
by indolent people? What could have been gained by placing a can- 
non and an inscription addressed to a "Stranger" where no stran- 
ger, nor any one else, would ever be likely to see either? and where 
they would inevitably be overgrown and covered up by the luxuriant 
vegetation of the spot within a year or two? ^Vhat profit could 
come to the fame of Bradshaw, or to any one else, by the whole 
enterprise? 

These are a few of the queries that will have to be satisfactorily 
answered before we cease to regard the scheme as utterly absurd in 
its origin, visionary in its details, and impossible of execution. This 
epitaph, under the form which I have given it on page 240 and evi- 
dently taken from the HoUis Memoirs, was printed in the " Gentle- 
man's Magazine" for Nov., 1781, p. 8^4. 

247 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

graph above quoted from the work of Mr. Edwards, and 
all the more that Mr. Edwards was a man of decided 
talent, with a clear head and a good command of facts 
as a historian. 

3d. The very existence of such a letter is ignored by 
the writer of said paragraph. 

4th. If it ever hud been written, its statements are 
either directly or inferentially contradicted at a subse- 
quent date by the presumed writer thereof. 

5th. What could have been more absurd or imprac- 
ticable than the idea of erecting a cenotaph, with such 
an inscription, to the memory of Bradshaw in Jamaica, 
or in any other part of the British dominions, during 
the reign of George III. ? 

6th. The additions to the proposed inscription, as 
compared with the original from which it was claimed 
to have been taken, and the changes in its language, 
prove either that the writer of the letter was not familiar 
with the original, or that if he were, he had no scruples 
as to altering it for his own purposes. In either case 
his word was not fit to be trusted without additional 
proof. 

As asserted in the work of Bryan Edwards, the epi- 
taph is to be found in the Appendix to the " Memoirs of 
Thomas Hollis." It is preceded, not by the original 
prefix, but by a statement that " it is often seen posted 
up in the houses in North America. It throws some 
light upon the principles of the people and may in some 
measure account for the asperity of the war carrying on 
against them." This must have been written between 
1776 and the year 1780, when the volume was printed, 
and the allegations it contains show that the shade of 
the grand old regicide had been evoked to good purpose. 

It is impossible at this remote period to discover the 
source from which came the copy of the epitaph in the 

248 



THOMAS HOLLIS 

Hollis Memoirs, or, in truth, the exact reason Avhy it 
was placed there at all. It could not have been found 
among the papers of Hollis himself, "from which the 
materials of the work were chiefly furnished," as is 
announced in the preface, since he had been in his 
grave — such as it was ^ — a year when the epitaph was 
first published, nor can we obtain any aid from writ- 
ings left by the various authors of that ill-arranged, 
ill- written, and chaotic panegyric, — " monstrum, hor- 
rendum, informe, ingens," the Pol3-phemus of its race, — 
since their very names are now unknown to the world in 
general, which must be peculiarly gratifying to their de- 
scendants.2 The memorial has alwaj-s, for some inscrut- 
able reason, been attributed to Archdeacon Francis 
Blackburne, a schismatic, like Hollis himself, and a 
Unitarian, and he is said to have received a thousand 
pounds for this inefficient service from Mr. Thomas 
Brand, who took the additional name of Hollis after 

1 Mrs. Adams in one of her letters (London, Sept, 27, 1786) 
writes that the remains of Thomas Hollis were buried " in Hollis 
pasture " and that their former tenant " left it as an order, which 
was faithfully executed, to be buried there, ten feet deep, the ground 
to be ploughed up over his grave.' ' This was probably from fear 
that he should be exhumed and exhibited as a freak by the Jesuits, 
of whom he had a morbid and unfounded horror during his whole 
life. 

2 As to the style in which it was produced, the memoir was 
really a miracle of costly typography and of exquisite and artistic 
ornamentation. To use the words of Horace Walpole, it was " splen- 
didly printed and decorated with cuts by Cipriani and Bartolozzl and 
with fine prints of our saints, Algernon Sydney, Milton, Locke, 
etc. In short, imagine the history of an old woman that goes to the 
mercer's to buy a bombazine with etchings of the deaths of Brutus 
and Cassius." 

The work was not sold or published, but " distributed among the 
elect," as Walpole says, including the President and Fellows of 
Harvard College. It consists of one huge quarto volume of about 
five hundred pages and a second volume containing an appendix of 
over three hundred pages more. 

249 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

having been made Mr. Thomas HoUis's heir. To judge 
from the book itself, however, the acceptance of this 
handsome douceur would seem to be all that the arch- 
deacon had to do with it. His name is not mentioned 
in any part thereof, and it is dedicated to Mr. Thomas 
Brand Hollis "by the compilers," who invariably de- 
scribe themselves as " we " throughout the work. More- 
over, in the preface the statement is made that "the 
materials of the work were, by certain accidents for 
which it is not necessarj' to account in this place, put 
together by different hands at a considerable distance 
from each other." To this another statement is added 
which every reader of this dull and heavy concoction of 
purchased adulation will surely find superfluous, that 
" in such a compilation uniformity and accurate arrange- 
ment are not to be expected, much less the more 
brilliant elegancies of composition."^ Under these 

^ With his other liberal and enlightened donations, Hollis gave 
various handsome volumes to the library of Princeton College. He 
would certainly have felt sorely grieved and annoyed, if he had seen 
the passage on page 219 of the memoir in which the compilers seek 
to justify the burning of that library by the British soldiery. 

"The troops of Britain had to do with their fellow subjects in 
rebellion, whom they were to subdue to absolute unconditional sub- 
mission. The colonists contended that they were intituled to certain 
rights and privileges of free subjects of which they had been de- 
prived, and which it was their duty to defend. Xow, from whence 
had they these rebellious notions? From these libraries undoubtedly, 
and with such kinds of learning in those regions it was the business 
of the British troops to wage war to the uttermost." 

Being a professional philanthropist and lover of his race, 'Mr. 
Hollis would have been treated to a second shock if he could have 
foreseen another disposition of the wealth he bequeathed in a fit of 
quixotic generosity to his friend, Thomas Brand. Mr. Hollis died in 
December, 1774, and shortly afterwards, his beneficiary, being anxious 
to secure a seat in the Parliament that had been summoned for 
November, 1775, did not hesitate to that end to bribe the venal 
electors of Hindon, by whom he was duly returned as their member. 
As it proved, however, the affair was arranged in such a scandalous, 

250 



THE HOLLIS MEMOIRS 

circumstances it -would, of course, be impossible to 
trace the responsibility for the insertion of the epitaph 
to any one of the various compilers of the memoir. 
The second volume, in which it is to be found, reminds 
one of a huge dump. It is crammed with a mass of 
documents and illustrations, for the most part irrelevant 
and useless, which seem to have no raison cCUre but to 
increase its cost and ponderosity. The presence of the 
epitaph in such company is all the more a matter of 
conjecture, since the name of Bradshaw does not appear 
in either volume, nor is there any mention of his deeds. 
One may, however, infer from the tone of the prefix 
above quoted that the object was to justify, in a measure, 
the severity of the treatment to which the colonists 
were subjected by the soldiers of King George, this 
being undoubtedly what is meant by "the asperity of 
the vrar," as set forth therein. By this course the com- 
pilers may have thought they were giving expression to 
the opinions of Hollis himself, who "was intimately 
grieved," as he wrote, "at the prospect of the disunion 
of England from America," and who, also, " disapproved 

unblushing fashion that it could not be overlooked even in that age of 
corruption, the result being that Mr. Brand Hollis was unseated, fined 
£1000, and sentenced to six months in the King's Bench prison. In 
addition to these expenses, he was also mulcted in others, like those 
imputed to Mr. Brooke, of Middlemarch, " for a seat outside Parlia- 
ment, as delivered, five thousand pounds, seven shillings, and four 
pence." All this appeared very sad to the relations and friends of 
Mr. Thomas Hollis, vpho himself despised every taint of corruption 
and had refused to become an M. P. on account of the disreputable 

I means necessary to attain the position. He once remarked, "I 
•would almost give my right hand to be chosen into Parliament, but 
I cannot give a single crown for it by way of bribe." As his uncle, 
Mr. John Hollis, wrote, " "When we look back and see the principles 

I held most sacred by Mr, Thomas Hollis treated with the grossest 
outrage by his dearest friend, and this friend employing Mr. Thomas 
HoUis's fortune for that purpose — shall we laugh, or shall we weep?" 

• See letter in the " Gentleman's Magazine," Feb. 1805, p. 117. 

251 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

methods of outrage and violence in the Colonists and 
studiously avoided the company and correspondence of 
those among them whose imprudent heat and resent- 
ment could bring forth nothing but irritation." It was 
for these reasons that he ignored Jefferson, objected to 
the exchange of letters with Adams, — though he 
warmly praised some of his writings, — and called 
Franklin "a trimmer," and thought him "a doubtful 
character. " Since the sender of the epitaph — who might 
have been possibly John Adams, or Dr. Ezra Stiles, or 
Dr. Andrew Eliot, of Boston, both of whom were corre- 
spondents of HoUis — undoubtedly thought it a truth- 
ful and important document and a powerful aid in the 
propagation of heroic resistance on this side of the 
ocean, the compilers would naturally be glad to include 
it in the memoir, and all the more so from the fact that 
Franklin, the admitted author, Avas generally regarded 
as the very nucleus of our whole revolution. As Adams 
wrote July 23, 1775, "The people of England have 
thought that all the opposition in America was wholly 
owing to Dr. Franklin." 

In 1783, when Franklin was at Passy, Mr. Brand 
Hollis sent him a copy of the memoir. In his letter of 
thanks the former does not mention the epitaph, though 
he does take occasion to claim the authorship of a letter 
wrongly attributed to Adams. Whether the donor was 
aware of the derogatory epithet applied by his bene- 
factor to Franklin, or had happened to overlook it, is 
not known, but Franklin noticed it and passed it by 
with the generous Avords, "I do not respect him the 
less for his error." He farther says, "He appeared 
shy of my acquaintance, though he often sent me valu- 
able presents, which are now among the most precious 
ornaments of my library." He likewise praises him 
for "his benevolence and great beneficence towards 

252 



HOLLIS AND ADAMS 

America." Here we behold a typical instance of Frank- 
lin's noble magnanimity and of his disdain of all resent- 
ment of any wrong. 

The whole attitude of Thomas Mollis towards John 
Adams is so curious and so well illustrates the former's 
various droll idiosyncrasies in every phase of mental 
development, that I am tempted to add a few words on 
the subject. 

Hollis's attention was drawn to a writing by Adams 
that had appeared in Boston in "Edes and Gill's 
Gazette" in 1765. It was called "A Dissertation on 
the Canon and the Feudal Law," and Hollis admired it 
so greatly that he had it reprinted at his own expense 
and took sixty copies for distribution. At that time he 
did not know the name of the writer, but in the intro- 
duction wrote, "The author of it is said to have been 
Jeremy Gridley, Esq., Attorney General of the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay." With it he also published an- 
other work which had attracted his fancy, though neither 
in that case did he know the writer's name. This had 
appeared anonymously in the "London Chronicle," Jan. 
7, 1768, and afterwards proved to be Franklin's "Ameri- 
can Discontents." With Franklin's usual fondness for 
quaint conceits, he had signed it "F. S.," which, being 
interpreted, meant F(ranklin's) S(eal). Thus, oddly 
enough, Hollis had paid for the printing of two essays 
by men neither of whom he ever saw, nor was he in 
sympathy with either, except in a vague, visionary 
fashion. 

From one passage in the first-named work, Hollis 
derived peculiar gratification: — 

'* But the wisdom and benevolence of our fathers rested 
not here. They made an early provision of law, that every 
town, consisting of so many families, should be always 
furnished with a grammar-school. They made it a crime 

253 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

for any town to be destitute of a grammar-school master 
for a few months and subjected it to a heavy penalty. So 
that the education of all ranks of people was made the care 
and expense of the public in a manner that, I believe, has 
been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern." 

It was Mr. Hollis's whim to pay for the publication 
of the above, though without the author's name, in the 
" London Chronicle " for July 28, 1768, with the follow- 
ing extraordinary dedication : — 

To Katherine Alexiona, Empress of all the Russias, ever 
magnanimous. 

The following extract from a Dissertation on the Canon 
and the Feudal Law, written at Boston in New England, 
is with all respect tendered by 

An Englishman. 

London, July 25, 1768. 

Adams himself evidently thought much less of this 
work than did Hollis. In August, 1770, he writes 
with obvious candor to Mrs. Macaulay apropos of his 
" Dissertation " : — 

" It was rather a mortification to me to find that a few 
fugitive speculations in a newspaper had excited your 
curiosity to inquire after me. The production, which some 
person in England, I know not who, had been pleased to 
entitle ' A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,' 
was written at Braintree, about eleven miles from Boston, 
in the year 1765 ; written at random, weekly, Avithout 
any preconceived plan, printed in the newspapers without 
correction, and so little noticed or regarded here that the 
author never thought it worth his while to give it either a 
title or a signature. And, indeed, the editor in London 
might more properly have called it * The — what d 'ye call 
it,' or as the Critical Reviewers say, ' a flimsy, lively rhap- 
sody,' than by the title he has given it. But it seems it 
happened to hit the taste of some one, who has given it a 

254 



ADAMS'S DISSERTATION 

longer duration than a few weeks, by printing it in con- 
junction with letters of the House of Representatives of 
this province by ascribing it to a very venerable, learned 
name. I am very sorry that Mr. Gridley's name was 
affixed to it for many reasons. The mistakes, inaccuracies, 
and want of arrangement in it are utterly unworthy of Mr. 
Gridley's great and deserved character for learning, and the 
general spirit and sentiments of it are by no means recon- 
cilable to his known opinions and principles in politics." 

Adams seems always to have resented the publication 
of this work by Hollis without his consent. As late as 
March 3, 1804, he says in a letter to F. A. Vander- 
kemp : — 

''Almost forty years ago — that is, in 1765 — I wrote a few 
thoughts in 'Edes and Gill's Gazette.' Mr. Hollis of Lon- 
don printed them in a pamphlet and imputed them to Mr. 
Gridley. He gave them the title of a ' Dissertation on the 
Canon and Feudal Law.' A lamentable bagatelle it is. I 
have no copy of it and know not where to get one." 

Having relieved his brain of this eccentricity and 
discovered the author of the "Dissertation," Hollis 
afterwards wrote to Dr. Andrew Eliot, of Boston, one 
of his favorite correspondents, this extraordinary tribute 
to Mr. Adams : — 

" In the minds of a few, not in nitmhers, doth the safety, 
felicity of states depend. Crown him with oak-leaves, 
especially ye men of Massachusetts, when festinating on a 
gaudy day, under the tree of liberty for having asserted, 
maintained the wisdom of your ancestors in their prime law 
the fixed settlement of a grammarian, that is of a man of 
approved character and virtue in all their townships." 

If this does not betoken insanity, or inanity, or at the 
very least an abnormal congenital development of the 

255 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

cerebellum, then appearances are far more deceitful 
than usual. 

Fortunately for us, he wrote in July 29, 1768: — 

" The people of Boston and of Massachusetts Bay, are, I 
suppose, taking them as a body, the soberest, most knowing, 
virtuous people, at this time, upon earth. All of them hold 
Revolution principles, and were, to a man, till disgusted by 
the stamp-act, the staunchest friends to the House of Han- 
over, and subjects of King George." 

As Hercules has been mentioned in these pages, I 
may as well state here that Hollis, who, like Franklin 
and Adams, had his own peculiar ideas as to that hero, 
in 1759 had a medal struck off, the design of which was 
by Cipriani, and represented Hercules destroying the 
Hydra. This was done in honor of Frederick the 
Great, "our valuable, meritorious ally," as he termed 
that king, — who did for Silesia the same " valuable, 
meritorious " service that William the Conqueror did 
for England, — and was the natural tribute of one who 
belonged to that class described by Lord Shaftesbury as 
"the real fine Gentlemen, the lovers of Art and inge- 
nuity; such as have seen the World." 

In spite of his radical limitations, Hollis was ever 
quick to discern and prompt to acknowledge that true 
merit in others, of whatever class, which had been 
revealed to his own perspicuity, though mercifully 
withheld from the obtuseness of the world at large.* 

1 Horace Walpole describes Hollis, " as simple a poor soul as 
ever existed, except his editor^ who has given extracts from the good 
creature's diary that are very near as anile as Ashmole's." 

On the 20th of April, 1781, there was a dinner at Mrs. Garrick's, 
where a choice gathering of hcaux esprits made the occasion emi- 
nently worthy of memory. Dr. .Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Miss 
Hannah More, Dr. Burney, Mrs. Boscawen, and Boswell were present, 
"all in fine spirits and exhilarated with Lichfield ale." Bozzy said 
to Mrs. Boscawen, " I believe this is as much as can be made of life." 

" One of the company mentioned Thomas Hollis, the strenuous 

256 



MRS. MACAULAY 

Hence we are not surprised to notice that he compli- 
mented Mrs. Macaulay on her last contribution to the 
history of England, and wrote her in November, 1768 : 
" The ingenuous throughout all ages will surely join to 
celebrate your praise as a very valuable, elegant histo- 
rian.*'^ In his diar}^, under date of Oct. 31, 1765, he 
eulogizes "His Royal Highness, William, Duke of 
Cumberland," just deceased (" the butcher of Culloden "), 
as "a worthy man whose memory will always be re- 
spected by the sons of liberty," while a few weeks later 
he started a subscription " towards an equestrian statue 
in his honor," with a contribution of five guineas. This 
tribute to worth and liberty, however, failed to mate- 
rialize, as " after the subscription had been opened sev- 
eral weeks at the different bankers in this metropolis," 
it was discovered that the rest of the inappreciative and 
ungrateful British Empire had added but one guinea 
and a half to the fund. There are times when even the 
devotee of virtue and liberty must find it very hard 
to learn that he is " invisible to his contemporaries, " as 
Emerson wisely puts it.^ 

Whig who used to send over Europe presents of democratical hooks 
with their boards stamped with daggers and caps of liberty. Dr. 
Johnson said he was a dull, poor creature as ever lived and added he 
might have become an atheist if he had time to ripen. He might 
have exuberated into an atheist." 

1 Poor Mrs. Macaulay, whom Dr. Johnson " stripped to her skin," 
in spite of Hollis's eulogy. 

De (Juincey was not content with merely stripping the luckless 
Mrs. Macaulay to her skin. He flayed her alive, and showed that she 
was a rcpublic.in ignoramus, a superficial pretender, a false distinc- 
tion, and various other things too numerous to mention. 

2 The Duke of Cumberland was a true " prince of the blood," of 
the blood shed at Culloden, which floAvcd in torrents from the man- 
gled bodies of the hapless followers of the Young Pretender, who 
were shot and tortured and killed with remorseless barbarity after 
they had cried in vain for mercy. 

About the only person in Christendom, with the exception of 
17 257 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

As to Mr. Brand IloUis, since he had an income of 
j£5000 per annum and was a radical and intractable Whig, 
tarred with a Unitarian brush ; as he professed to be " a 
great admirer of Marcus Aurelius," Dr. Hutcheson, and 
other brilliant moral lights, — all his little peccadilloes 
were generously forgiven by Adams, who looked upon 
his fine and imprisonment as merely the natural thorns 
in a martyr's crown and as the inevitable result of being 
on the seamy side of politics. In the summer of 1786 and 
1787, he, being then Minister from the United States, 
and Mrs. Adams were amply entertained by Hollis at his 
magnificent estate, " The Hyde," v/hich he had inherited 
from Thomas Hollis ; and so lavish was Mrs. Adams in 
the amplitude of her condonation that she describes 
him as "a neat, nice bachelor of about fifty years old," 
which was just seventeen years less than his actual age. 
This was written from London Sept. 27, 1786. As 
for Mr. Adams, he went still farther, and when his host 
was over seventy, he wrote to him from New York, 
June 1, 1790, and advised him to "come over and pur- 
chase a paradise here and marry one of our fine girls ; " 
from all of which it is pretty clear that both Mr. and 
Mrs. Adams were in hot pursuit of the same game, and 
that the true patriot should stick at nothing to ser\^e his 
country, but should be, like the prophet Habakkuk, 
"capable de tout," even to the extent of sacrificing 
somebody else's daughter to a rich old Minotaur three 

Thomas Hollis, wlio thought the Duke of Cumberland a saint and a 
savior, was Barabbas Cave, the piratical publisher and proprietor of 
the " Gentleman's Magazine." The chief attraction of that periodical 
for the year 1746 was a big medallion of the Duke in his war-paint 
fresh from the bloodthirsty and murderous campaign of Culloden. 
This bore the simple legend " Ecce Homo." This was quite as far 
as blasphemy could go, and showed very conclusively the real charac- 
ter of its designer, who lacked even common decency, to say nothing 
of numberless other defects. 

2oS 



THE BRADSHAW EPITAPH 

thousand miles away, and tliiis doing his part, as Pope 
says, towards "bearing another's misfortunes perfectly 
like a Christian." 

I have stated above my belief that Franklin was the 
author of the Bradshaw Epitaph, and consequently of 
the noble motto that formed its crowning glory. Oddly 
enough, however, in spite of its popularity, no name 
was ever attached to tliis wide-blown waif of Revolu- 
tionary literature, nor was there, so far as one can judge 
at this remote period, any particular desire to learn who 
wrote it, the result being very naturally that the con- 
temporary evidence in behalf of Franklin which has 
survived for our learning is both scanty and undemon- 
strative, though the various fragments, when carefully 
put together, leave little doubt as to his identity. This 
must seem inexplicable to the present generation, with 
whom dawning greatness speedily becomes a household 
word and a welcome and prolific inheritance. But we 
must seek to recall the fact that our Revolutionary era, 
though starred, like the firmament, with great deeds 
and glowing words, was in many other respects decidedly 
barren. The schoolmaster was abroad; general intelli- 
gence crept slowly about, and curiosity tiptoed languidly 
in its steps. The most satisfactory and popular read- 
ing was solid sermons, "Pilgrim's Progress," and the 
writings of Moses and the prophets. Newspapers were 
small and scantily equipped. Reporters were conspicu- 
ous by their absence. The mails, where any existed, 
were slow and not sure; and altogether the people, 
provided they eventually received in moderate quan- 
tities the mental pabulum they liked to chew upon, 
lid not greatly hanker to learn from whose pen any 
interesting novelty came. Nevertheless, in regard 
to the one in question, they thought and thought, 
an til the popular instinct gradually and inevitably 

£59 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

crystallized upon Franklin as the only possible source 
of the epitaph and of the motto tliat was to endow 
it with such a prolific immortality. In this conclusion 
the voice of the people has been finally justified by 
the result, for not only do all the facts thus far known 
point to him, but not one single likely competitor has 
appeared.^ 

Finally, it is well that notice should be taken of the 
style and diction which the writer of the epitaph era- 
ployed, and that doubtless from design. Generally 
speaking, it is that of the English language in its best 
estate, and the whole composition is dignified, thought- 
ful, robust. It moves processionally on to the fulness 
of its final consummation, and there are but one or two 
words which tend to show that it could not have been 
written at the time when it purports to have been. All 
the rest might well have come from the pen of Milton, 
of Clarendon, Sydney, or from any other of the great 
masters of the English tongue in the seventeenth 
century. 

Since the above paragraph was written, I have 
received the following note from Henry Bradley, M.A., 
the learned editor of the "New English Dictionary" 
and one of the greatest living authorities on our 
vernacular tongue. The epitaph was submitted to him 
for his opinion as an expert on its merits, and with no 
suggestion as to its possible origin, or any other com- 
ment whatever. 

^ I liave already called attention to the fact that Franklin was 
never anxious to acknowledge the authorship of any of his writings, 
and in this instance he was — presumably — secretive in the extreme, 
as the epitaph was not only published without his name, but in a 
journal for which he never wrote anything else, whereas it might 
have naturally been expected to appear in his own peculiar organ, 
the "Pennsylvania Gazette." He never acknowledged " Polly 
Baker" till towards the end of his life. 

2G0 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



" New English Dictioxary," Clarendon Press, 
Oxford, 27 July, 1S9S. 

Dear Sir, — The inscription looks to me remarkably like 
Franklin's style. I do not think it can be much older than 
the date (1775) assigned to it ; later it may be. My opinion 
is formed ra.ther on grounds connected with the general 
turn of the sentences than on any definite lexical criteria ; 
but I do not think that such a use of " pageantry " as occurs 
in the inscription, or such a collocation of "heroes and 
patriots," could be found in Queen Anne days. The inscrip- 
tion is decidedly in the style of the eighteenth century. 
Believe me very sincerely yours, 

H. Bradley. 

Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to respond to 
this eloquent and forcible appeal to his inmost convic- 
tions, and a copy of the whole epitaph in his own care- 
ful and characteristic script, and bearing date "1776," 
was found by his relation and secretary, INIr. Nicholas 
P. Trist, in "a little old trunk," where the great states- 
man had filed away the few papers he had thought 
worth preserving previous to 1779.^ It was labelled 
"Bradshaw's suppositious Epitaph," and to it was 
appended by ]\Ir. Trist " a remark by Mr. Jefferson " to 
this effect: " From many circumstances there is reason 
to believe there does not exist any such inscription as 
the above, and that it was written by Dr. Franklin, in 
whose hands it was first seen." Though the last clause 
is to a certain extent ambiguous and does not state that 
Jefferson himself saw the epitaph in Franklin's hands 
or in his handwriting, yet enough is revealed to prove 
that it was generally admitted, by Jefferson and others, 
to be Franklin's work. 

As Mr. Trist goes on to say: " 'Tis evident that the 

1 Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. p. 231 and vol. ii. p. 585. 
261 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

motto -which we find on one of Mr. Jefferson's seals 
was taken from this epitaph, which, as we see from the 
note appended thereto, was supposed to be one of 
Franklin's spirit-stirring inspirations." 

In 1816 Louis Hue Girardin, Professor of Ilistor}- 
in William and Mary College, published the fourth 
volume of a "History of Virginia," which had been 
begun by John Daly Burk and had been left incomplete 
by his death in 1808. On this work Professor Girardin 
had been engaged since that event, and had been favored 
during its preparation by free access to the valuable 
historical collections of Thomas Jefferson, includinjr 
also the contents of the little trunk above mentioned, 
three of the letters from which he quoted. He was 
much favored by Jefferson, who even perused the 
results of his labors before publication and expressed 
his warm approval thereof. 

In " Appendix No. 14 " the professor writes : — 

" Several schemes were proposed for a new seal. We 
find in our documents the following in Franklin's hand- 
writing : — 

Moses — standing on the shore and extending his hand 
over the sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pha- 
raoh, who is sitting in an open Chariot, a crown on his head 
and a sword in his hand. Eays, from a pillar of fire in the 
clouds, reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by the 
command of the Deity ! 

Motto. — Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." 

This manuscript was likewise found in the trunk 
with the copy of the epitaph first mentioned and other 
valuables treasured by their owner. As there is no 
good ground for doubting the professor's assertion that 
it was in Franklin's hand, and as the description of the 
whole device agrees with that in Adams's letter (which, 

262 



FRANKLIN'S CLAIM 

by tlie way, Girardin could never have seen), it seems 
likely that it was the identical writing offered to the 
committee by its author, and that it had been inspected 
by Adams and afterwards appropriated by Jefferson as a 
precious prize. The fact that the two manuscripts were 
thus filed away together at the same time is strong cor- 
roborative evidence in favor of Franklin, as well as 
significant of the importance attached to them by their 
owner. Whether Franklin ever acknowledged the 
authorship or not to Jefferson, the latter could have 
had little doubt on the subject, especially after Frank- 
lin had offered the motto to the committee and thereby 
tacitly admitted it to be the offspring of his pen. This 
was farther confirmed when Jefferson subsequently 
adopted it for the legend of his ovvrn private seal, a 
choice eminently appropriate for one who wrote that 
kings were " a class of human lions, tigers and mam- 
moths," and that "our young republics ought to besiege 
the throne of Heaven with eternal prayers to extirpate 
them from crea,tion." ^ 

^ Letter to Col. David Humphreys, Paris, April 14, 17SS. 
There is a bare possibility that one, or both, of the above papers may 
be in existence at this time. The epitaph on Bradshaw was sent to 
France by the agency of La Fayette, who obtained it, as an example 
— an admirable and characteristic one ■ — of Jefferson's handwriting 
for M. De Lyon, a young friend of his who accompanied him on his 
visit here in 1824. Mr. Trist says " it was a fine specimen, written 
on a narrow slip of thin paper." The Franklin document may possibly 
be still hidden away among some Jeffersonian dc'bris, though it is more 
probable that it was burnt in the fire at the Library of Congress 
which destroyed so many of the great statesman's collections, Dec. 
24, 1851. 

Valuable manuscripts and interesting autographs have a sad way 
of mysteriously vanishing from time to time, and they rarely come 
to light again. For example, Franklin's famous epitaph on himself 
has mysteriously disappeared, and cannot be found in any library or 
nmseum, or in any of the large collections of autographs in private 
hands, like that of the late Mr. Morrison and others. An exact fac- 
simile of the manuscript was published in 1840 by Bohn as one of 

2G3 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Among the various papers brought to light by Pro- 
fessor Girardin (though not mentioned by Mr. Trist in 
his Memoranda), was one that revealed the famous 
motto under a new aspect. 

On the 6th of July, 1776, the General Assembly of 
Virginia voted to adopt a design for a seal, which Mr. 
Wythe and INIr. Page were requested to have drawn 
and engraved immediately. For some reason not now 
exactly understood, this was not done till three years 
later, and Du Simitiere meanwhile took advantage of 
the lapse to offer a sketch, ^yhich, as appears from the 
reference on page 157, was designed in August of that 
year and was probably submitted to Jefferson. It is 
given here in full, partly on account of its connection 
with our subject ; partly in order to show the peculiari- 
ties and the limitations of its author's talents, such as 
they were, and partly to introduce another bit of evi- 
dence to prove that Jefferson was not the original writer 
of "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," which 
is quoted in the last paragraph of the manuscript with 
an alternative motto, "Rex est qui regem non habet," 
which Du Simitiere, the designer, says was "suggested 
by Mr. Jefferson," the inevitable inference being that 
he did not offer the former. 

Burk's History of Virginia, vol. iv. appendix 14. 

" Another Coat of Arms for Virginia was designed by M. 
De Cimitiere of Philadelphia. 

Field — a cross of St. George (as a remnant of the ancient 
Coat of Arms, shewing the origin of the Virginians to be 

the " Historical and Literary Curiosities " selected by Charles John 
Smith. It was then the property of TVilliam Upcott, but it did not 
appear in the long and minute sale catalogue of his invaluable collec- 
tion of autographs, when they were sold at auction in June, 1S4G, 
after his death, and all trace of it has since been lost. The original 
record of Franklin's famous examination in 1760 was burnt with the 
Houses of Parliament in 1834. 

264 



COAT OF ARMS 

English), having in tlio center a sharp pointed knife, in 
pvale, bhack argent, handle or, alluding to the name the 
Indians have given to that state. 

In the first quarter argent, a tobacco plant, fleur, proper. 

In the second quarter argent, two wheat-sheafs iu saltoir, 
proper. 

In the third quarter argent, a stalk of Indian corn, full 
ripe, proper. 

In the fourth quarter vert, four fasces waved argent, 
alluding to the four great rivers of Virginia. 

Supporters, Dexter, a figure dressed as in the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, representing Sir "Walter Raleigh, planting 
■with his right hand the standard of liberty, with the words 
Magna Charta written on it, and with his left supporting 
the escutcheon. 

Sinister, A Virginia rifleman of the present times, com- 
pletely accoutred. 

Crest. The crest of the ancient arms of Virginia, the 
breast of a virgin, naked and crowned with an antique 
crown, alluding to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign the 
country was discovered. 

jMotto. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God ; or Rex 
est qui regem non habet (suggested by Mr. Jefferson.) " 

The artist's memorandum states that it was "in two 
sides," though the sketch describes but one, which was 
so elaborate that it might easily have been spread over 
a score. It was carefully preserved by its recipient, 
who, for various reasons, could never have offered it 
for the approval of the General Assembly, though the 
last half-dozen words prove that ho did display suffi- 
cient interest therein to suggest a truly characteristic 
motto for his "country," which was more than he ever 
did for the United States. This v/as the third docu- 
ment found among Jefferson's papers that culminated 
in " Rebellion to tynints is obedience to God " as its 
crowning glory, and tlie peculiar favor he thus evinced 

2C5 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

in its beli.alf tends to show both that lie knew the name 
of its author and that the name of the author was 
Franklin. His adoption of the aphorism as his own 
motto "svas, then, a whole-souled tribute of friendship, 
sympathy, and admiration from a fellow philosopher and 
patriot, and it may be added that it cordially agrees 
with the tone of the original draft in Jefferson's hand 
of the Declaration of Independence, where George III. 
is repeatedly called a tyrant and his reign a tyranny, — 
words which Adams thought too severe. 

It was long the custom in many quarters, political 
and other, to attribute this phrase to Jefferson as its 
compiler, but no word in proof of this assertion has ever 
been found, either verbal or written. In fact, he never 
referred to it as his own in any shape, nor did Franklin, 
Adams, or any of his contemporaries claim this in his 
behalf. If it had come originally from Jefferson, 
Franklin would never have coolly assumed it as his 
own, nor v/ould Jefferson himself, when it v\'as sug- 
gested in committee, have stood idly by and seen it 
thus purloined. On the contrary, he would in all prob- 
ability have laid claim to it at once and advocated its 
fitness for our new republic. 

Jefferson, unfortunately, though sincerely sympa- 
thizing with the sentiment expressed in Franklin's 
motto, evinced but a passing interest therein as a public 
emblem, and none at all as a possible motto for the new 
seal, or in any other of its features. He was alienated 
from the whole matter by another more distant and all- 
absorbing loyalty, and there is nothing to show that he 
ever composed or suggested any motto whatever for any 
person or corporation, public or private, except for 
himself. His real concern at the time was for his own 
State of Virginia and for her seal and motto. To her 
he ever tendered an ample and devoted homage, and, 

260 



JEFFERSON AND VIRGINIA 

as is e-sadent from the letter printed below, to liim she 
was always "my country." The signs of this feeling 
crop out everywhere in his writings, like underlying 
strata impelled to the surface by a deeply seated and 
irresistible force. This was the prevailing creed of each 
son of Virginia in that day, and one may truthfully say, 
has so continued to the present time.^ 

1 This fear that his " country " would be depriyed of some of her 
inalienable rights, even by the Congress at which she was so well 
represented, is always perceptible in Jefferson's writings. In a letter 
to Adams,_ May 1(), 1777, amidst all the agitation of that troublous 
period, he says: " The journals of Congress not being printed earlier, 
gives more uneasiness than I would wish ever to see produced by 
any act of that body from whom alone I know our salvation can 
proceed. In our Assembly even the best affected think it an indig- 
nity to freemen to be voted away, life and fortune, in the dark." 

Jefferson's idea was that "the States should be one as to every- 
thing connected with foreign nations, and several as to everything 
purely domestic ; " in other wordj, each was to follow its own orbit 
and not to leave it. 

It is very difficult for this generation to comprehend the proud 
assumption and the powerful influence of Virginia in 1776. This 
attitude is very plainly revealed by Adams in his account of the 
inception of the Declaration of Independence: — 

" The committee met, discussed the subject, and then appointed 
Mr. Jefferson and me to make the draught, I suppose because we 
were the two first on the list. 

" The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make the 
draught. I said, 'I will not.' 'You should do it.' 'Oh! no.' 
' Why will you not ? You ought to do it.' 'I will not.' ' Why ? ', 
'Reasons enough.' 'What can be your reasons?' 'Reason first 
— You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head 
of this business. Reason second — I am obnoxious, suspected, and 
unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third — You can 
write ten times better than I can.' 'Well,' said Jefferson, 'if 
you are decided, I will do as well as I can.' ' Very well. When 
you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting.' " 

This haughty pretension was noticed by Sir Charles Lyell on his 
visit to this country in 184.5, and he afterwards told me he was amazed 
to notice the patronage extended by the Senators and Representa- 
tives to their fellow-members, even to those of such talent, distinc- 
tion, and culture as Webster and Winthrop, and he was also amazed 
at the toleration, to use the mildest word, with which it was en- 
dured, as a matter of course. ' 

267 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

In a letter to his fellow-citizen, James Madison, 
^yTitten from Paris under date of Feb. 8, 1786, Jefferson 
submits an inscription from his own pen for the statue 
of Washington by Houdon, that had been voted by the 
General Assembly of Virginia nearly two years before. 
One line reads: "His country erects this monument: 
Houdon makes it." During the years 1785 and 1780 
he refers often to this work, while there is no mention 
whatever of the medal that had been voted by Congress 
to Washington to commemorate his " wise and spirited 
conduct in the siege and acquisition of Boston," and 
this in spite of his agreement to take charge of its com- 
pletion after Colonel Humphreys had left Paris. The 
reason, of course, was that one was voted by "his 
country" and "my country," and the other merely by 
Congress in behalf of everybody else's country.^ 

On the 30th of July, 1770, — ten days after the com- 
mittee on the seal brought in their report, — Jefferson 
sent a letter from Philadelphia to his intimate friend, 
"The Honorable John Page, Esq.," in which he does 
not so much as mention the seal of the United States, 
but finds much to say concerning that of Virginia. It 
was a reply to a letter from Page dated July 20, ^ begin- 
ning : " We are very much at a loss here for an engraver 
to make our seal, and J\Ir. Wythe and nij-self have 

1 Apropos of this subject, I am tempted to add a paragraph from 
the very learned and able work of Professor John Fiske, " Critical 
Periods of American History " : — 

" There never was a time when JIassachusetts, or Virginia, was 
an absolutely sovereign state like Holland or France. ... It is clear 
that until the connection with England was severed, the thirteen 
commonwealths were not united, nor were they sovereign. It is also 
clear that in the very act of severing their connection with England, 
those commonv.-ealths entered into some sort of union which was 
incompatible with their absolute sovereignty taken severally." 

- Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society by 
Henry PhiUips, 1744-^1838. 

268 



JEFFERSON'S LETTER 

therefore thought it proper to apply to you to assist in 
this business. Can you get the work done in Philadel- 
phia? If you can, we must get the favour of you to 
have it done immediatel3% The enclosed will be all the 
directions you will require. The engraver may want to 
know the size. This yoiu may determine; unless Mr. 
Wythe should direct the dimensions. He may also be 
at a loss for a Virtus and Lihcrtas ; but j^ou may refer 
hira to Spencers Polymetis^ which must be in some Library 
in Philadelphia." 

July 20, 177G. 
Dear Page, — On the receipt of your letter we enquired 
into the probability of getting your seal done here, we find 
a drawer and an engraver here, both of whom we have 
reason to believe are excellent in their way, they did great 
seals for Jamaica and Barbadoes, both of which are said to 
have been well done, and a seal ^ for the Philosophical 
Society here, which we are told is excellent, but they are 
expensive and will require two months to complete it. the 

1 The seal in question must have been the final outcome of the 
vote of the xVmerican Philosophical Society on the 20th of April, 
1770, when a committee, consisting of Messrs. Paschal, Thomson, 
Rush, and O. Biddle, was instructed to prepare a device. They 
seem to have taken their time in the matter, for no report was pre- 
sented till March 4, 1773, when a design was offered and duly 
approved and the committee was requested to have it executed in the 
best and luost e.Kpeditious manner. This design has been often 
attributed to Du Simitiere, but there is nothing to shov/ that he had 
anything to do with it. Though a member of the society, he was 
not even one of the committee. The engraving v»'as done by James 
Poupard, who was a really capable artist and a resident of Philadel- 
phia. His name appears attached to several plates that were engraved 
for the early publications of the Society, especially the first two 
volumes. There is a facsimile of the seal in an article by Mr. Julius 
F. Sachse entitled "The Fatherland" and printed in the Proceed- 
ings of the Pennsylvania-German Society for November, 1797. From 
this it will be seen that both the design and the engraving are of very 
good quality, a fact which makes it hard to explain the action, or, 
more properly speaking, the inaction, of Mr. Wythe and his col- 
leagues, the result of which was that the design was finally executed 
in Paris in 1779 under the care of William and Arthur Lee. 

2G9 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

drawing the figures for the engraver will cost about 50 
dollars, and the engraving will be still more, nevertheless 
as it would be long before we could consult you and receive 
an answer, as we think you have no such hands, and the 
expense is not to be incurred a second time wo shall order 
it to be done. I like the device of the first side of the seal 
much, the second I think is too much crowded, nor is the 
design so striking, but for god's sake what is the " Deus 
nobis haec otia fecit " ? ^ it puzzels every body here : if 

1 Jefferson, who was a good classical scholar, might have founded 
his criticism of these words on other grounds than their failure to 
represent the actual condition of his own " country." The " deus " 
— the god — tiiey mentioned was the Emperor Aup;u3Lus, an ambi- 
tious and unscrupulous tyrant, heartless and treacherous, cruel and 
sensual. The passage is taken from the First Eclogue, where Tityrus 
sings the praises of his ruler for the tranquillity he had vouchsafed to 
bestow upon his subjects. Such unworthy adulation would naturally 
be odious to a radical democrat, like Jefferson, Avhose estimate of 
sovereigns in general is so well known. The motto was finally dis- 
carded, though it is not clear by whose influence, in 1T79, when the 
General Assembly, in October of that year, passed an act requiring the 
substitution of the unmeaning and inappropriate word " Perseve- 
rando," which still appears on the reverse of the great seal, though 
the "Deus nobis haec otia fecit" continued to be used on "the 
lesser seal," so called, until the year 1865, when both the great and 
the lesser seal disappeared at the time of the capture of Richmond. 

The first George was named Augustus, and so was the second 
and likewise his son, Frederic, Prince of Wales, and the Duke of 
Cumberland. George IV. was christeued Augustus, and so were his 
two brothers, the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Kent, the father 
of Queen Victoria, The designation originally belonged to the 
Elector of Hanover, from whom they were all descended. As to 
George III, the appellation was not necessary, for his great rival, 
Wilkes, soon dubbed him " Augustulus," which amply supplied the 
deficiency and suited the sovereign exactly. Augustulus was the 
last of the Eoman Emperors of the West, and in him sovereignty 
dwindled down to its most insignificant aspect and the least sem- 
blance of dignity or intellectual calibre. 

There is this to be said, however, in behalf of the author of the 
motto, that though Virgil did profess to worship his master and did 
flatter him for favors received, he was at heart a good republican, and 
ever retained the veneration of the true poet for liberty and the 
patriot senators, while he abhorred the venality, slavery, and corrui> 
tion of the empire. 

270 



SEAL OF VIRGINIA 

ray country really enjoys that otiuvi, it is singular, as 
every other colony seems to be hard struggling. I think 
it "was agreed on before Duuraore's flight from Gwyn's 
island [July 9, 1776], so that it can hardly be referred to 
the temporary holiday that has given you. this device is 
too aenigmatical, since it puzzles now, it will be absolutely 
insoluble fifty years hence. ^ 

The history and elaboration of the Great Seal of 
Virginia is interesting in itself, and all the more so from 
the fact that it bears as one of its mottoes, " Sic semper 
tyrannis," famous from its first advent, and now noto- 
rious from its connection with the death of Lincoln on 
that direful night when his assassin flung it, like a 
blazing firebrand, in the face of the nation. On the 
1st of Jul}', 1776, the Constitutional Convention of 
Virginia, which had met at Williamsburg on the Gth 
of the preceding INIay, chose a committee of four "to 
devise a proper seal for this Commonwealth." These 
were Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, Robert Carter 
Nichols, and George Wythe. As Mr. Lee was not in 
the Convention, Mr. Mason took his place as chairman 
and presented their report. This was done on the 5th 
of July and the report was promptly adopted, being the 
last act of the Convention before its adjournment, 
George Wythe and John Page having been " desired to 
superintend the engraving the said seal and to take care 
that the same be properly executed." The details of 
the seal as offered by the committee and printed in the 
Proceedings of the Convention are as f ollov/s : — 

"Virtue, the genius of the Commonwealth, dressed like 
an Amazon, resting on a spear with one hand and holding 
a sword with the other and treading on Tyranny repre- 
sented by a man prostrate, a crown fallen from his head, 
a broken chain in his left hand and a scourge in his right. 

^ This letter was first printed on page 68 of vol. xx., A. D. 18G6, 
of " N. E. Hist, and Gen. Kegister." 

271 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

"In the exergou the Avord Virginia over the head of 
Virtue, and underneath, the words Sic Semper Tyrannis. 

" On the reverse a group, Libertas, with her wand and 
pileiis, on one side of her Ceres, with the cornucopia in one 
liand, and an ear of wheat in the other. On the other side 
Aeternitas, with the globe and phoenix. In the exergon 
these words DeiLS Nobis Haec Otia FecitP 

The above description is printed verhativi et literatim 
in Bark's "History of Virginia," vol. iv., appendix 
14, where it is preceded by these words : " ]Mr. Wythe 
proposed the annexed — The figures from Spence's 
Polymetis." Undoubtedly, Professor Girardin had 
before him the very manuscript describing the " direc- 
tions " for the seal that was sent to Jei'ferson by his 
friend Page, and it was probably in Wythe's handwrit- 
ing, for the professor would not otherwise have attributed 
the origin of the seal to him. 

All the elements of probability point to Wythe as its 
author, and there is not one word of reliable or con- 
temporary evidence in favor of any other. It was Mr. 
Wythe and INIr. Page that were appointed to look after 
the engraving of the seal, the latter having had noth- 
ing to do with it up to that time. It was Mr. Wythe 
who was to "direct the dimensions," and it was very 
natural that Mr. Wythe's description should be kept by 
Jefferson and afterwards be seen by Professor Girardin. 

From the above facts it seems very plain, almost 
amounting to demonstration, that Wythe was the 
original author of the phrase " Sic semper tyrannis." It 
certainly could not have come from Jefferson, as he was 
in Washington during the whole period of the evolution 
of the seal, and he certainly would never have expressed 
his warm approval thereof, as a part of the obverse of 
the seal, as he did in his letter to his friend Page. In 
the "William and Mary College Quarterly " for October, 

272 



GEORGE WYTHE 

1894, p. 91, the editor, Mr. Lyon S. Tyler, President 
of that College, takes this view, and with decided suc- 
cess, claiming that Wythe was responsible for the whole 
design of the seal. Wythe was quite equal to any such 
commission. He was a many-sided genius in his way, 
the most accomplished Greek and Latin scholar in the 
land, and of widespread, general learning. To the 
close of his eighty years he was an indefatigable student, 
his character was essentially noble, and he was noted 
for the most scrupulous truth and integrity. If the 
motto had not been the offspring of his own brain, he 
would not have seemed to acknowledge it to be such by 
thirty years of reticence, when there was so much dis- 
cussion as to its origin. Had it proceeded first from 
Jefferson, Wythe would have been one of the very first 
to seize the chance to pay deserved and graceful tribute 
to his friend and fellow-countryman. ^ President Tyler '^ 
remarks : — 

^ Col. Sherman McEae, in the "Old Dominion Magazine" for 
December, 1871, ascribed the honor of preparing the 'great seal of 
Virginia to George Mason, and says, " It is not the least of the mon- 
uments on which his fame rests ; " and the same writer, in his " Report 
of the Great Seal of Virginia," in the House Journal for 1883-84, Doc. 
11, terms it " an essential part of George Mason's plan of govern- 
ment. The first is his declaration of rights, then the constitution, 
and then the great seal — a Corinthian column with its base, shaft, 
and capital." Kate Mason Rowland, in "The Life of George 
Mason," 1892, remarks that " the conclusion that Mason designed the 
seal is irresistible." In behalf of all these statements, there is not 
one solitary jot or tittle of evidence nor even of inference, except the 
fact that Mason presented the report of his committee. 

2 Wythe seems to have had a cordial and enduring friendship for 
Adams, based on mutual esteem and many common interests and 
sympathies. In the third volume of the Life of John Adams by his 
son is the facsimile of an interesting and warm-hearted letter from 
Wythe to Adams, dated Dec. 5, 178.3. In this the writer laments the 
great distance that lies between them, and which forms so complete a 
b.ar to the daily intimacy, that would otherwise ensue. He finds a 
certain solace from aptly quoting in the original Greek three verses 
of the Odyssey, in which the auburn-haired Menelaus portrays his 
18 273 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

"In Girardin's continuation of Burk's * History of Vir- 
ginia,' it is said that Wythe proposed the device adopted 
by the Convention ; and as Girardin wrote under the super- 
vision of Mr. Jefferson, who was keenly alive to all such 
matters, there can be no reason to doubt the fact. George 
Wythe and John Page were appointed to superintend the 
engraving of the seal. In the absence of Lee, Mason, as 
next on the committee, had reported the seal to the Con- 
vention, but Wythe was entrusted with its execution, and 
must have penned the words that describe the seal, which 
have been admired for clearness and precision." 

It was long the custom in some quarters to assert 
that the motto in question came first from Brutus, as 
he thrust his dagger into the body of Caesar and thus 
"paid ambition's debt; "but though it sounds like the 
fierce slogan of a desperate conspirator, there is no 
reason for attributing it to that spirit-starting patriot, 
nor can it be found in any Latin author, ancient or 
modern. Surely, if there had been any record of such 
a picturesque detail of Caesar's death, the omniscient 
genius of Shakespeare would have used it with telling 
effect, and it could never have been hidden from that 
all-embracing research which even discovered that the 
left ear of Csesar was deaf. 

Dr. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College and a 
prominent man in his day, j-ielded without resistance to 
the delusive assumptions of the epitaph, and accepted it 
without criticism as an historical fact. This seems all 
the more remarkable in view of his professed interest 
in antiquarian research and of his life-long friendsliip for 

amiable, though futile, intentions towards the wandering Ulysses. 
" And we being here, would frequently have associated together; nor 
would anything else have separated us twain, being kind to and 
delighting one another, before at least the time when the black 
cloud of death had enveloped us." 

274 



PRESIDENT STILES 

Franklin.^ In his "History of the Three Judges of 
King Charles I.," published in 1785, a month before his 
death, he writes (p. 106): "It is to this day jjroblemati- 
cal and can never be ascertained whether the bodies of 
Bradshaw and Cromwell were actually taken up and 
dishonored at the Restoration. It is in secret tradition 
that Bradshaw was conveyed to Jamaica. His epitaph 
is descriptive of him and full of spirit. In a public 
print of 1775, it was said, "The following inscription," 
etc., etc. After this comes the prefix to the epitaph, 
and then the epitaph itself, copied almost precisely from 
the paper in which it first appeared, and proving that 

1 In the winter of 1755 Franklin, fresh from the glamour of his 
electrical discoveries, paid a visit to Yale and received an enthusi- 
astic welcome, which culminated in the College Hall, where Mr. 
Stiles, then tutor, delivered a spirited Latin oration, in honor of 
" Ille immortalis Franklinus, Philosophus noster Americanus," end- 
ing with " Nunc autem viri adstamus in te gloriantes, o Philosophiae 
princeps!" It was on this occasion, I believe, that Franklin was 
first publicly favored with the title of philosopher. 

In the matter of scholarship the oration can hardly be said to rank 
very high, and it does not confirm the statement of Professor Meigs 
in his funeral oration, that President Stiles " wrote this language 
with a surprising facility and with a purity and elegance that would 
have honored the age of Augustus," but anything, of course, can be 
said, especially in a dead language, of a man who is dead and unable 
to contradict it. At best, it seems but a fair type of American Latin, 
and there are several sentences that would have given Cicero a pro- 
found fit of indigestion and "made Quintilian stare and gasp." 
Even his prosy biographer and son-in-law, Rev. Abiel Holmes, is fain 
to apologize for his unclassical expressions, and to add that "it is, 
perhaps, impossible for the Moderns to adhere perfectly to the 
excellent models furnished by the Ancients." So we should think. 
In view of the above facts it is quite easy to account for the failure 
of his biographer to discover any replies whatever to the Latin 
letters which his hero was wont to send to every part of the world to 
the most distinguished savants and literati of the day, as he artlessly 
writes, "Whether those letters, or their answers, miscarried; or, 
whether the persons addressed were not sufflcientiy inquisitive, or 
had not leisure, or abilities, to make the desired researches; or to 
whatever cause it is to be ascribed; no replies have been discovered." 

The reason is sufllciently patent. 

275 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the Doctor must have had it before him, as he could 
not have written it so exactly from mere memory. 

It is hard to decide what explanation to offer of 
this cloistered disdain of that universal public opinion 
which must have been borne in upon him, as upon every 
one else; this indifference to the admitted truths of 
histor}'-, this credulous and easy-going reliance upon 
flighty tradition. As to the friendly and secretive 
Franklin, it is very plain that he never revealed his 
share in the epitaph to Dr. Stiles, or if he did, that 
the latter preferred to remain in the genial atmosphere 
of plausible circumstance that both enveloped and 
quickened it. But whatever may have been the source of 
his attitude towards the epitaph, it matters little to this 
generation, for his influence belongs entirely to the past. 
Though President Stiles had a weakness for omniscience 
and was thought to be the greatest pundit of his age by 
our forefathers, who contemplated his fame as nothing 
less than pyramidal ; though he ranged freely over the 
whole domain of science from astronomy to electricity, 
from Greek and Latin to Hebrew and Arabic, from 
sacred history to profane ; though he was accounted the 
most learned and accomplished divine in this country, 
but few vestiges remain of all this splendor, which is 
now but a dim reminiscence, as insubstantial as the 
morning mist. His writings possessed neither strength, 
originality, nor staying force, and now, like "coffined 
thoughts of coffined men," they only cumber the shelves 
on which they are deferentially suffered to remain. 
This remark applies with peculiar truth to the work 
above mentioned, for nothing could reveal more clearly 
the inherent weaknesses of its author or his utter in- 
ability to infuse a lasting vitality into anything. Dr. 
Stiles called it a "History," but surely no writing was 
ever published so entirely void of every quality that 

276 



THE THREE JUDGES 

History should display. Two-thirds of it, at least, are 
an incongruous quagmire of uncertain statements and 
delusive inferences, as ill arranged and as ill digested 
as the contents of an ostrich's stomach, with no dis- 
crimination or judgment, no faculty of description, no 
powers of narration and no delineation of character. 
Chancellor Kent, in his very eulogistic tribute to Presi- 
dent Stiles, observes: "Towards the conclusion of his 
life. President Stiles wrote and published his ' History 
of Three of the Judges of King Charles I.,' and this 
work contains proof that the author's devotion to civil 
and religious liberty carried him forward to some hasty 
conclusions, in like manner as his fondness for antiqua- 
rian researches tended to lead his mind to credulous 
excesses." He might have said a great deal more with- 
out passing the bounds of truth, and probably would 
have done so, but for the presence of the genius loci 
■ and the glamour of mild phosphorescence that still per- 
• vaded its sacred precincts. 

Some amusing examples of President Stiles 's happy 

. faculty for assimilating traditional incongruities and 

converting them into organic historical tissue are given 

by Mr. Franklin B. Dexter in a most intelligent and 

; discriminating paper on Edward AVhalley and William 

. Goffe, read before the New Haven Colony Historical 

Society, Nov. 14, 1870. Certainly, no one ever sur- 

; passed the enthusiastic divine when once mounted on 

; his favorite hobby and in far-darting pursuit of some 

. fugitive and evanescent myth. The boldness with 

: which he leaped over the broadest and deepest crevasse ; 

the dexterity with which he seized his prey, bore it, 

. invito mcmine, to his study, thrust a pin through it and 

fastened it down forever, must have been worth going 

r many miles to see. As Mr. Dexter facetiously observes, 

: "the process by which one regicide's grave became 

277 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

three evolved itself as regularly as the story of the three 
black crows." The Doctor's ingenious location of the 
grave of Goffe was almost as miraculous as the trans- 
lation of Elijah, and came perilously near to spontaneous 
generation. Passing one day through the New Haven 
burial-ground, his head big, like that of Jupiter with 
Minerva, with the throes of his " History of the Three 
Judges," Dr. Stiles stumbled upon a stone marked 
"M. G. 80." Instantly, as by a flash of inspiration, 
the whole truth mounted to his teeming brain. He 
had but to invert the "M" and it became a W; add 
a 16 to the "80," and presto! the whole m^'stery was 
revealed! "William Goffe, obt. 1680" stood forth in 
letters of living light, as clear as Shakespeare's auto- 
graph. Nothing could be more obviously obvious, more 
"doocid lucid," as the English say. And yet, notwith- 
standing the grandeur of his discovery, the good Doctor 
was very modest in the assertion of his claims, and merely 
says, " I have not found the least tradition or surmise 
of Goffe being buried there till I myself conjectured it " 
Of course, no one could doubt his word, and, fortunately 
for him, he could not have foreseen the advent of the 
irreverent Mr. Dexter and his envious efforts to explain 
everything away, like Mr. Blotton and his exposure of 
Mr. Pickwick's famous discovery. 

On the whole, it is just as well that President Stiles 
did not attempt to elucidate "Rebellion to tyrants is 
obedience to God," since he might have proved that it 
was written by George HI. 

In the light of the above examples, the statement of 
his biographer that " Dr. Stiles took considerable libert}' 
in the use of words, in his vernacular tongue, as well as 
in the learned languages," will strike the reader as 
quite superfluous. This elasticity evidently extended 
to letters as well as to words. 

278 



Part VIII 

Committee on Great Seal of the United States. — Vestige of Debate. 

— Report of Committee. — Coat of Arms devised by Du Simi- 
tiere. — Mr. Lossing's Vagaries. — Handwriting of Du Simitiere. 

— The" Gentleman's Journal." — Motteux. — EPluribus Unum. — 
Mrs. Priscilla Sherman. — Mrs. Charles Spencer Cowper. — Cave 
and the " Gentleman's Magazine." — His Peculiar Management. 

— Rev. J. Sackette. — Barabbas Cave. — Resumi ot \\\s Labors. — 
Disreputable Character. — Prophecy about the new Republic. — 
Washington in the " Gentleman's Magazine." — True Character 
of our Motto. — Louis XIV. — Mottoes of other Nations. — 
Motto of Massachusetts. 

It is not my intention to embark at length upon a 
detailed narrative of the evolution of our Great Seal, 
but merely to give some account of our national motto 
and the source from which it came. 

The earliest record now to be found of the labors of 
the committee charged with the preparation of the 
Great Seal of the United States is on file in the archives 
of the Department of State at Washington. It is in- 
dorsed: "No. 1. Copy of a Report made Aug. 10, 
1776,"^ and is one of the Continental Congress Papers, 
No. 23, Reports of Committees," p. 143. A photo- 
graphic copy thereof, of the same size as the original, 
appears on the opposite page. It is written on each 
side of the same sheet, without either comment, pre- 
amble, or appendix, without signature or other means 
of verification, though bearing undeniable marks of its 

^ This statement is an error. The report was actually made on 
the 20th of that month, a fact which may account for the lack of any 
reference thereto in the letter from Adams of August 14, before 
quoted. 

279 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

genuineness. It is not in the handwriting of any one 
of the committee, nor in that of Charles Thomson, the 
"perpetual Secretary of Congress," nor in that of any 
other person whose penmanship can be traced by very 
careful investigation, but seems the work of some clerk 
done in careless haste and at the dictation of one of 
the members. 

To tell the truth, such vestiges of their labors as have 
come down to us tend to show that they were all carried 
on in an informal, desultory, unsystematic fashion, 
which would naturally leave but few traces. As, ac- 
cording to the contents of Adams's letter, neither Du 
Simitiere, nor any other artist, had sent in any sketch 
previous to August 14; as the committee had reached 
no decision up to that date, and as they presented their 
report on the 20th of that month, the obvious inference 
is that the really vital and material discussion of the 
whole subject began and ended within four or five days 
at the outside. It is very likely that much less time 
was devoted to it. And, after all, the melancholy fact 
remains, perhaps as a just result of this imperfect ser- 
vice, that not one feature of the various devices pro- 
posed by Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin now forms a 
part of our seal, while of those offered for their approval 
in 1776, the only ones retained are two that came from 
the alien Du Simitiere, one being our motto and the 
other the radiating eye of Deity, which still appears on 
the reverse of the Great Seal. 

On the opposite page the reader will find a copy, 
from the original at the Department of State, of the 
solitary record now remaining of the colloquies of the 
committee in regard to their coming report. It consists 
of four lines disfigured with erasures and loosely scrib- 
bled at one of their meetings ; a crude and cursory frag- 
ment in the hand of the writer of the report, as finally 

280 



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DEPORT OF TOE COMMITTEE ON THE OltEAT SEAL OF TDK UNITED STATES 






I 



DEBATE ON THE GREAT SEAL 

adopted. It. shows that a debate had evidently taken 
place as to the propriety of exchanging Liberty's " corse- 
let of armour" for the more feminine and peaceful garb 
of "a flowing dress," and of exalting her upon a pedes- 
tal, on which were to be sculptured various emblems. 

Stripped of its externals and resolved into plain Eng- 
lish, it read thus: originally, "The Figure of Liberty 
in standing attitude and flowing Dress, leaning on a 
Column, on which are to be engraved the Emblems of 
Navigation, Commerce, Agriculture and Arms." 

Finall}', " The Figure of Liberty standing on a Pedes- 
tal in a flo\\'ing Dress, leaning on a Column on which 
are to be the Emblems Commerce, Agriculture and 
Arms in Sculpture." 

I now give the report in print : — 

" The great Seal Sh"* on one side have the arms of the 
United States of America which arms should be as follows. 
The Shield has six quarters, parti one, coupe two. The 1st 
Or, a Eose enamelled gules and argent for England : the 
2d Argent, a Thistle proper, for Scotland : the 3d Verd, a 
Harp Or, for Ireland : the 4th Azure a Flower de Luce Or 
for France : the 5th Or the Imperial Eagle Sable for Ger- 
many : and the 6th Or the Belgic Lion Gules for Holland, 
pointing out the countries from which these States have 
been peopled. The Shield within a Border Gules entoire ^ 
of thirteen Scutcheons Argent linked together by a Chain 
Or, each charged with initial Letters Sable as follows 1st 



^ " Entoire " was used some centuries ago in heraldry, but it was 
obsolete long before 1770 and is now never seen. It is veiy old 
French, and is really the equivalent of " entourc," bordered. As 
used above, it is quite superfluous. 

The order of the States, as arranged by Du Simitiere, was not 
original with him, but was that invariably adopted by the Continen- 
tal Congress from the first mention of the thirteen Colonies on its 
records. It was based simply on their latitude and geographical 
position. 

281 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

K H. 2nd M. B. 3d R. I. 4th C. 5th N. Y. 6th :N". J. 7th P. 
8th D. C. 9th M. 10th N. C. 12th S. C. 13th G. for each of 
the thirteen independent States of America. 

" Supporters, dexter the Goddess Liberty in a Corselet of 
armour alluding to the present Times, holding in her right 
Hand the Spear and Cap and with her left supporting the 
Shield of the States ; sinister, the Goddess Justice bearing 
a Sword in her right baud, and in her left a Balance. 

" Crest the Eye of Providence in a radiant Triangle, whose 
Glory extends over the Shield and beyond the Figures. 

« Motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. 

"Legend, round the whole atchieveraent. Seal of the 
United States of America MDCCLXXVI. 

" On the other side of the Great Seal should be the fol- 
lowing Device. Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot a Crown 
on his head and a Sword in his hand passing through the 
divided Waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites 
Rays from a Pillow of Eire in the Cloud, expressive of the j 
divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who 
stands on the Shore and extending his hand over the Sea ! 
causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh.^ 

" Motto. Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." 

In the archives of the Department of State we find 
still another manuscript connected with the evolution | 
of the Great Seal of the United States. It is labelled | 
"The Coat of Arms of the States of America," and is; 
bound up with the "Jefferson Papers," 5th series, vol. 
viii. p. 3, though it is not in Jefferson's handwriting, 
nor is there any proof that it was especially connected I 
with his name. With it is a sketch embodying the] 
details of the description set forth therein. A photo- 

1 A sketch of the Great Seal based on the above description is 
given in Mr. Lossing's article before mentioned, and is from his pen- 
cil. The same also appears in a pamphlet by Gaillard-IIunt, of 
Washington, published in 1892, and entitled " The Seal of the United 
States: How it was developed and adopted." 

282 






/6 










C^^-S-^- '^ 




DESIGN FOR SEAL, BY DU SIMITIERE 



DU SIMITIERE 

graphic copy of each of these is given on the opposite 
page, and they both were undoubtedly offered to the 
committee and formed a part of their report and should 
be placed among their papers. There is abundant testi- 
mony to show that both sketch and manuscript were the 
work of Du Simitiere, the Frenchman mentioned by 
Adams in his letter of August 14, and there is every 
reason to believe that the sketch, and doubtless the 
manuscript, was seen by Adams when he visited the 
artist's studio on the day before that date. It is to 
be noticed that Adams makes no mention of the motto 
in his letter; but this omission might have arisen 
from various causes, such as hasty inadvertence, or 
forgetfulness. 

In "Harper's Magazine" for July, 1856, p. 180, is 
an article entitled "The Great Seal of the United 
States." It was from the pen of Mr. Lossing, the well- 
known historical writer, and is copiously bespangled 
with many specious and pleasing delusions of his vivid 
imagination. He states that "Franklin and Adams 
requested Jefferson to combhie their ideas in a compact 
description of a proper device for a great seal. He did 
so, and that paper in his handwriting is now in the 
office of the Secretary of State in Washington City." 
He then quotes the whole of the document above de- 
scribed. As to the source of this paper, there is no 
foundation whatever for his assertion; and certainly, 
as any one can see, nothing could well be more unlike 
the easy flow of the manuscript in question than Jeffer- 
son's clear, careful, and distinctive penmanship, which 
his relation and secretary, Mr. Trist, says " was at that 
period the most beautiful, to my taste, I have ever 
seen." 

Mr. Lossing farther informs us that "all the illus- 
trations of this article are correct copies of rude sketches 

283 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

now in the archives of the State Department at Wash- 
ington City, except the representation of the seal pre- 
pared by Jefferson. This was drawn by the writer of 
this article from the description of Mr. Jefferson, in 
his own handwriting now among other records of the 
proceedings of the several committees in the State 
Department.'' It may be well here to state that the 
first of these "illustrations" was the creation of Mr. 
Lossing's own fancy. It is labelled "Du Simitiere's 
design and has ' bello vel pace ' for a motto." I sub- 
mitted it to Mr. Andrew H. Allen, the very intelligent 
and learned Chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library 
in the Department of State at Washington, and he in- 
formed me, " It is not to be found in this Department, 
upon a thorough and careful search just finished." Mr. 
Allen also farther wrote me, under date of July 19, 
1897, in regard to Mr. Lossing's mention of the docu- 
ment in Jefferson's hand: "That statement is incorrect; 
there is not such description in Mr. Jefferson's hand- 
writing possessed by the State Department, and there 
probably never was." 

A transcript of Du Simitiere's device is here given 
in legible print: — 

" The Coat of Arms of the States of America. The 
Shield has six quarters, parti one, coupe two ; to the first 
it bears Or, a rose enammelled Gules and argent, for Eng- 
land ; to the Second, Argent a thistle proper, for Scotland ; 
to the third part, a harp or, for Ireland ; to the fourth azure, 
a flower de luce or, for France ; to the fifth or, the Imperial 
Eagle Sable, for Germany ; and to the Sixth or, tlie belgic 
Lyon, Gules, for Holland, (these being the six principal na- 
tions of Europe from which the Americans originated.) this 
Shield -within a border gules entoire of thirteen Escutch- 
eons argent linked together by a chain Or, each charg'd 
with initial letters Sable, as follows. 1st N. H. 2d M. B. 

284 



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Mo- E JLU-JOBUJ! tnvfT/lwL 
^'f r»,n2 ^ 7a^^/, a^Ji^emewh. Sen/ p/^ it i^x^ssa-_ <mik9 

' Jnti'sy erf' a>yren/m . . MDCCX^CCvi 



UKt^CHIPTUKN OF IJIS llI.>I,iN |1V W SIMITIt 



COAT OF ARMS 

3d R. I. 4th C. 5th N. Y. 6th K J. 7th P. 8th D. C. 9th M. 
10th V. 11th N. C. 12th S. C. 13th G. for each of the thir- 
teen independent States of America ! 

" Supporters, dexter, the Goddess Liberty, in a corselet of 
armour (alluding to the present times) liokling in right 
hand the Spear and Cap, resting with her left on an anchor, 
emblem of Hope. Sinister, an American Soldier, com- 
pletely accoutred in his hunting shirt and trowsers, with 
his tomahawk, powder horn, pouch, &c. holding with his 
left hand his rifle gun rested, and the Shield of the States 
with his right. 

" Crest, the eye of Providence in a radiant Triangle whose 
Glory extend over the Shield and beyond the Supporters. 

"Motto. E PLURIBUS UNUM. 

" Legend round the whole Atcheevement. Seal of the 
United States of America. MDCCLXXVI." 

By comparing the two documents above given, it will 
be seen that the committee adopted all the features of 
Du Simitiere's design except the "anchor, emblem of 
hope," and the American soldier and his accoutrements, 
for which they substituted "the Goddess Justice" 
with her sword and balance. 

For the obverse they recommended, in compliment to 
Franklin, his device of Moses and Pharaoli and the 
portentous and gloomy tragedy of tlie Red Sea, with 
the avenging and protecting Deity " lightning through 
the storm." 

The testimony on behalf of Du Simitiere comes from 
three sources, which I shall now proceed to set forth. 

Firstly. The first half of the description agrees in 
all its details with that contained in Adams's letter, 
written within twenty-four hours after it had been im- 
parted to him, as a member of the said committee, by 
Du Simitiere. 

Secondly. The first twelve lines of the manuscript, 

285 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

as photographed, are identical as to their contents with 
the first nineteen lines of the committee's report, which 
proves conclusively that the manuscript was used by 
them in its preparation. As the motto, " E pluribus 
unum," is the same in each, this also proves that it was 
originally suggested by Du Simitiere and afterwards 
adopted by the committee. 

Thirdly. The whole document is in the handwriting 
of Du Simitiere. In support of this assertion I give 
herewith photographic copies of two portions of his 
script, written at different times and under different 
circumstances. One is taken from his note-book, before 
mentioned, and the other from a copy he made of a part 
of Robertson's "History of America," which is now 
preserved among his papers in the Ridgway Library at 
Philadelphia. 

The original of this copy is to be found in a manu- 
script bound up with a volume entil;led "Papers relat- 
ing to Pennsylvania and Carolina," No. 965, folio, and 
it is of the same size as the page from which it is taken. 
It offers a characteristic specimen of the neat and legible 
hand of Du Simitiere at its best, Avhich was decidedly 
original and quite unlike any other customary script of 
that day, whether English or French. The length of 
the extract in question is infinitesimal compared with 
the great mass of additional manuscript that accom- 
panies it, which bears ample testimony to the wonderful 
industry of Du Simitiere and to his patient devotion to 
his work. No one, however incredulous, can compare 
these two examples with the description of the United 
States seal without being convinced that all three came 
from the same hand. The points of resemblance and of 
identity are so numerous that they are revealed to the 
most casual glance, to say nothing of the general style 
that stamps the whole trio. The only real difference 

286 









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FACSIMILE OF DU SIMITIERE'S MANUSCRIPT 



E PLURIBUS UNUM 

seems to be that one of the papers is written with con- 
siderably less care tlian the other two. The habit of 
lifting the pen in forming words is the same in each. 
The peculiar shape of the capital P is very marked, and 
the same is true of the capital E, and they both display 
the same identity throughout. The I closely resembles 
J. The word "the " always presents a typical form, and 
the same characteristic features are invariably impressed 
upon the letters, a, b, /, 7t, m, p, t^ y, and z. In fact, 
there is hardly a letter in one document that has not its 
counterpart in each of the others, while various words 
with the same formation are to be noticed in them 
all. These peculiarities, to say nothing of some others 
that might be mentioned, are certainly enough to prove 
most conclusively a common origin for the three manu- 
scripts. 

To these facts I beg to add that the initials of the 
States in "The Coat of Arms," as well as those in the 
sketch, and the letters composing " E Pluribus Unitm," 
are all obviously the work of the same pen.^ 

I trust I have produced sufficient evidence to prove 
conclusively that the choice of " E pluribus unum " as our 

1 Those who are hypercritical enough to bring forward some 
few seeming incongruities, or apparent variations from the general 
style of Du Simitiere, may as well be reminded that such instances 
can occasionally be found in the writings of every person, however 
particular. As an example in point, one can refer to the manuscript 
of Washington, who was generally the most careful and methodical 
of men in the use of his pen, and yet in the following line, " I 
am, Sir, Y' Most Obed' H'''"-" Serv'. G." Washington. Fort Loudoun, 
10th Sept. 1757," where the letter s is used five times, in each case 
it has a different form, though the note is written with Washington's 
usual neatness and accuracy. See his Life by Sparks, p. 495, ed. of 
1839, where facsimiles of Washington's hand are given. So in 
Shakespeare's few crude and scanty contortions with the pen, the 
same letter takes almost as many contradictory shapes. It is 
quite needless, however, to multiply examples of such an obvious 
truth. 

287 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

national motto is owing entirely to Du Simitierc, who 
most certainly olfered it to the committee that finally 
adopted it. This conclusion is all the more reliable 
from the fact that there is not the shadow of a claim on 
the part of any other competitor. 

I now propose to say a few more words in regard to 
the actual origin of our national motto and its history 
previous to its adoption by the Congressional committee. 
As I have taken considerable pains to get at the truth 
of this matter, I desire to call the attention of my 
readers to the fact that much of the evidence I have 
gathered comes from original documents, some of which 
have never before been published. 

The first appearance of the phrase " E pluribus unum " 
in print, so far as I have been able to discover, after 
laborious, persistent, and exhaustive search by myself 
and others on both sides of the Atlantic, was on the 
titlepage for January, 1692, of "The Gentleman's 
Journal, or The Monthly Miscellany," which was then 
published in London and had just entered upon the 
second year of its existence. Its sole editor and pro- 
prietor was Pierre Antoine, otherwise Peter Anthony, 
Motteux, a Huguenot refugee from Rouen, who wrote 
the greater part of the prose contents of each issue, and 
who was undoubtedly the author and originator of our 
national motto. I give herewith a photographic copy 
of this titlepage, taken from the only one now existing, 
which is in the British Museum, and of the same size 
as that, and I also add a page of the letter-press, from 
both of which the reader will get an exact idea of 
the dimensions of the work, its typographical aspect 
and of the literary aims of its proprietor. From the 
earliest advent of the motto, it was printed on the title- 
page of each monthly number, and so continued till the 
appearance of the last one in November, 1694. I may 

288 



THE 



Gentleman's Journal: 

OR THE MONTHLY 

VI ISC ELLA NY. 

In a Later to a Geiuleman in the Country. 

^lonfifting of Novs, Hijlory^ Fhilofophy^ 
Toctry^ Miificl^ , Tranflatiom , &c, 

JANUARY, 169;. 



Imprimatur, 



CHARNOCK HERON. 



Vol. 







9 NDON Printed, and fold by R. P/irker at tl;e Vnicom under the 

Pia^K.tt at the Roy^l Exchange in Cornhll-^ And R. Baldwin, near the 
Oxford Aims in Warwicli^-lane^ and at the BUck^ Ljon in Tlect-jireet^ 
)etween the Trvo Temple-Gates. 1693. 

^herearetobe hadCompleat Sets,or fingle ones,for the laft Year. 



I 

J,A N U A R Y. ,^ 

t2^:?n tp bring it to perfeaion Thofe feveral Academies tkt have 
been fcunded m feveral Cities. of thatKingdom , in imitation of 
that at P^m, which are all compos'd of the.moft learned and polite 
Wits there, are an undeniable Inllance of this. Evety one I^nows 
that Cardinal Richelieu having been told by the ing^tilousBcifrdert 
his Secretary, that feveral ingenious Men ufed to rriett to'improve 
themfelves and the Language, made that a famous Academy, which 
was at firll a private Society. I have vvilh'd many times that -fome 
of the beft Mafters of the Ert^^li/h Tongue would imitate that ;good 
Example, and by fuch Conferences about the Language; give arj op- 
portunity to fome noble Patron of Learning, to lay the Foundation 
of fuchan Academy, whofe authentic Authority might decide ^^U 
doubts concerning the Tongue, and giving iis a good E^^/i/h Gram- 
mar and Didionary, make it perfect and lading. 

It was not till the Year 1672, that the-F;T;;r/j King was pleas'd to 
t>e the Protedor of the French Academy;,To that it was above thirty 
Years before it could boaft of a Royal Patronage, and the Apart- 
ment in the Lofivrc. Their Devife is a Laurel, vvitb thefe words 
yt/'Immortalite-, which, among the ref}, may beapp'ly*d to their en- 
deavors to immortalize their Language. In i66p, in the City of 
ylrks was eftabliili'd-an Academy with the fame defign, their Devife 
being a little Bay Tree near a greacer, with a Sun over both , an-1 
thtis \^'or6s,FoveKtny eodem. ^ Soijfons {o\\Q\\'d the Example in »57f, 
and took an Eagle, flying with its young one towards ihe Sun , for 
its Devife with this Motto, Mater^iis MfilHs nudflx. Nifmes in 1682, 
its Devife a Palm-Tree, EmuU Laurl. ViHe-franche^m 1687, its De- 
v^ife feveral precious Stones furrounding a greater, Mutuo cUrcfchmra 
igne. A-^z^rs in 1685, alfo ef!abliQi*d an Academy, which, if I ^m 
not m/irtaken, hath not yet chofen its Devife. Wliich Devifes ("by 
the way) are a kind of P.oetryAvhich wedo.noc derive from the 
Ancients for the Hieroglyphics of the F?^p/Mw/ were at beft only 
half or imperfed Devifes, and Bodies without Souls •,n\'hereas regu- 
lar Devifes fometimes e>iprefs more in one word, than doth a Vo- 
lume. But there ig a great deal of Wit requir'd tofind out Sub- 
jects proper for the Body of. a Devife, and .Words.or a Soul fuitable 
to it. But of thefe I hope to treat in fome of my next. 

That which is prefix'd tothis A'fifedlAny, among other things , im- 
plies, that tho' only one of tlie many Pieces in it were acceptable, it 
j-night gratify e\'ery Reader. So I may venture to croud in -what fol- 
lows, as a Cowdip and a Da;^y a,n:iongtbe Lillies and the Rofes. 



D 1 To 



PIERRE ANTOINE MOTTEUX 

also state that jNIotteiix was the designer of the bouquet 
as well as of the motto. ^ 

Motteux was a Huguenot emigre^ who was obliged to 
leave France in 1685 in consequence of the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes. Many of his family and friends 
took refuge in England with him at the same time. He 
was then in his twenty-third j^ear "^ and an accomplished 
scholar. As a linguist, he possessed peculiar ability, 
and his knowledge of English was really marvellous. 
Being a man of natural energy and capacity, in addition 
to his various accomplishments, he soon acquired a good 
position in London and became well known to all the 
best writers of his day. His life was not by any means 
a reputable one, and seems to have been quite on a par 
with the general looseness of that age. On the 24th of 
May he alleged his intention to marry " i\Irs. Priscilla 



1 I am perfectly aware of the efforts that have long been made to 
trace our national motto to " Ex pluribus unum," as used by Saint 
Augustine in his "Confessions," and to "E pluribus unus" in 
Virgil's " Moretum," but neither of these is " E pluribus unum," and 
if it were, there is not one tittle of evidence to show any connection 
between it and them. " Constare animos et ex pluribus unum facere." 
— Confess, lib. 4, cap. 8. " Color est e pluribus xmn^:'' — Mordum, v. 
103. 

It is a fact that the whole range of Latin literature, including even 
the Humanist writers, does not reveal a single example of the use of 
the expression " E pluribus unum." 

2 As this is not the age generally a.ssigned to Motteux, even in 
Mr. Leslie Stephens' wonderfully able and accurate " New Biographi- 
cal Dictionary," I give the following jiroof thereof from the Registry 
at Rouen, a copy of which is now in my possession. 

" Extrait de Tun des Registres de Vkint Civil des Protestants 
tenus en la commune de Petit Queville, pns Rouen, deposes au Greffe 
du Tribunal civil de I'Arrondissement de Rouen. 
Fevrier, 1603. 
Le dimanche 2.'5 decembre fut baptise par M, Le Moyne, le fils 
d'Anthoine le Motteux et d'Isabeau Le Xud, ne le jour susdit, dont 
est parrain Pierre Le Xud et marrainc Judith Fourgon, Veuve du 
deffunct Jean Le Motteux, et nomme Pierre Anthoine." 
19 289 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Sherman, of St. Sepulchre, London," ^ but a thorough 
ransacking of all the parish records fails to show that 
he did anything more than that. Probably this was 
done chiefly to satisfy the scruples of the lady, and not 
from any sense of propriety, present or to come, on his 
own part. 

Priscilla Sherman is said to have been a great beauty, 
but Motteux, even as a pseudo, semi-detached husband, 
was faithless. The upshot of his whole scandalous' life 
was his sudden death in a bagnio in the parish of St. 
Clement Danes on the 18th of February, 1718. The 
inmates had got up for the general amusement a mock 
execution, in which Motteux was the principal per- 
former. Unhappil}^, just as the climax was reached, a 
procession hove in sight, the jovial crew ran to see it, 
and stayed so long that on their return their guest was 
found to be hung beyond resuscitation and the melodrama 
changed into a tragedy. ^ 

1 Extracted from the Principal Registry of the Archiepiscopal See 

of Canterbury. 

Vicar General's Office, 24th May, 1700. 

Which day appeared personally Peter Anthony Motteux of Lon- 
don, aged 36 years, and alleaged y' he intendeth to marry •vv''' Mrs. 
Priscilla Sherman of St. Sepulchre, London, aged 26 years at her 
own dispose not knowing nor believing any Impediment by reason of 
any precontract. Consanguinity, Affinity or any other lawful means 
w' soever to hinder y"^ intended marriage of y'' truth of y" premises 
he made Oath and prayed Lycense for them to be married in y« par- 
ish Church of Bromley in y'= Coimty of Middlesex. 

r . Peter Axth. Motteux. 

Jurat. 

The records of the parish Church of Bromley contain no mention 

of any such marriage for three years after the above date. 

2 The name of Motteux suggests a little tale which may not be 
void of interest, tinctured with tragedy, to Xew Yorkers of a genera- 
tion ago. Pierre Antoine Motteux had a brother Jean, or John, 
who came to England in 1693. His great-grandson, of the same 
name, lived to be the last of his race in England, and probably in the 
world, though the family was once numerous, and died in 1843, a 
bachelor, leaving enormous wealth, including two mansions in Lon- 

290 



MRS. CHARLES SPENCER COWPER 

As to the sense of the motto, as undei'stood by 
Motteiix, I find hut one reference to it in all the num- 
bers of his periodical, and there are no means of discov- 
ering the precise reason that led him to adopt it and 
thus to abruptly substitute it in place of the classic 
quotations that had previously adorned the titlepage of 
each monthly issue. That to him " E pluribus unum " 
implied ''One chosen from many," is plain from the 
language used in his Essay on " French Devises. " In 
the issue for January, 1692-3, the reader will find at the 
foot of the page given in facsimile this paragraph : — 

" But there is a great deal of Wit required to find out 
Subjects proper for the Body of a Devise, aud Words or a 
Soul suitable to it. But of tliese I hope to treat in some of 

don, large estates in the counties of Norfolk and Surrey and miicli 
personal property. All these he bequeathed to lion. Charles Spencer 
Cowper, son of the fifth Earl Cowper and uncle of the present earl. 
One of the above estates was Sandringham, of 7000 acres, which Mr. 
Cowper in 1861 sold to Prince Albert for £220,000 to provide a coun- 
try-seat for the Prince of Wales. In 1852 Mr. Cowper married the 
Countess D'Orsaj% who died in 1869. On the 21st of April, 1871, he 
married, at Florence in Italy, Jessie Mary, only child of Col. Alexan- 
der Clinton McLean, of Newburgh, N. Y. She was a great beauty, 

■ and had a most distinguished social success in New York, until she 
, went to Europe. March 30, 1879, Mr. Cowper died at Albano, and 

■ by his will, dated August 9, 1873, bequeathed all his vast property, 

. both real and personal, including not only his English estates, but 

• the Blessington estates in Dublin and in Tyrone County, Ireland, to 

his widow, absolutely in fee simple with the exception of an annuity 

of £300 per annum to her mother. Such devotion had seldom or 

'■ never been heard of before in England, where the financial results 

of matrimony generally assume a very different shape, and where, 

■ also, the bare possibility of a change of British gold into dollars and 
"cents has always been discountenanced and obstructed in every 
'available way. Of course, the action of Hon. Charles Cowper was 
' bitterly resented by the late Earl and his family, and they soon con- 
"trived, for very obvious reasons, to transfer Mrs, Cowper to the well- 

' known asylum for the insane at near London, where she is now, 

>with no more prospect of release than the hapless Mrs. Maybrick. 

291 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

my next. That which is prefixed to this Miscellany, among 
other things, implies, that tho' only one of the many Pieces 
in it were acceptable, it might gratify every Reader, so I 
may venture to crowd in what follows, as a Cowslip and a 
Dazy among the Lillies and the Roses." 

This language is farther confirmed by the punctua- 
tion of the phrase, where a very legible comma is in- 
serted before the word "unum," with the object of 
making the sense more definite. 

From the facts I have stated it seems clear that we 
are really, though indirectly, indebted for our motto to 
the cruel intolerance and bigotry of Louis XIV., — of 
accursed memory, — for there is no reason whatever to 
infer that JMotteux would have left France but for the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes — that bigoted, brutal, 
and bloody blunder — and "E pluribus unum" would 
have never been heard of but for his agency. There is, 
when one comes to think of it, a certain verbal, though 
merely nominal, resemblance between our motto and 
that of Louis, which was " Nee pluribus impar," — " Not 
unequal to many " — with the rising sun in his splendor 
for a device. This sentiment would be far more appro- 
priate for our nation than its present "sounding brass 
and tinkling cymbal," especially at the present moment, 
v/hen we have an expansive and boundless future, while 
France not only has no future, but is barely able to hold 
its ov/n. 

This vainglorious assumption of the French "son of 
the sun " and " Lord of the universe " is translated into 
" £gal a plusieurs " — " Able to cope with several " — by 
Larousse in his admirable and mostly unimpeachable 
encyclopaedia. It seems, however, equally unsatisfac- 
tory, on the score of Latin, patriotism, or historic accu- 
racy. The king himself, who may naturally be supposed 
to have known what he meant when he chose his motto. 



THE 



Gentleman^ Magazine^ 



O R, 



Monthly Intelligencer. 



Volume I. 



For the Year M.DCC.XXXL 



CONTAINING, 

ESSAYS Contr overfill, //w-ij[V. BWths^ Marriages y Deaths^ 
morcuSy and Sa(iri:al\ Rctigisus,\ Promotions, and Bankrupts, 



Moral,. and Political: Colleaed 
chiefly from the Publick Papers. 

I. Select Pieces of Poetry. 

II. A fuccindV Accour.t of the 
moft remarkch'c TranfaSlions and 
Evtniiy Foreign and Domeftick. 



V. The Prices of Goods and Stochg 
and Bill of Mortality. 

VI. A Regifter of Books. 

VII. Obfervatioas in Gardening, 



With proper INDEXES, 



By Sylvanus Urban, Gent. 



RODESSE^ DELECTARE 




^im 



E Pluribus Unom«. 



L iv D ^'.• 

Primed by Edw. Cave, ]un. at St. JoitN s Gate. ; 



LOUIS XIV 

says in his " Mdmoires Historiques " that it signified 
that " I should doubtless suffice to govern other empires 
than my own, as the sun would enlighten other worlds, 
if they were exposed to its rays. " He admits, however, 
that some obscurity had been found in the phrase, and 
also states that " it was suggested to him by those who 
had observed the ease with which he ruled his kingdom." 
Henri ^Martin says, " cette Idgende est bien fastueuse et 
surtout obscure et embarrassee." Histoire de France, 
livre Ixxxi. p. 167, note. He also rela,tes that Louis 
delighted to be constantly en Evidence as the head- 
centre and focus of interest, — " le centre et le principe 
de toutes choses," — and that he was even wont to take 
a part " in mythological ballets, with attributes borrowed 
from the sun-god." Ibid. 

As there is every reason to believe and no reason to 
doubt that Cave, the founder of the "Gentleman's 
Magazine," took its title, its first motto, and its bou- 
quet directly from Motteux's " Journal, " and that Du 
Simitiere transferred it thence to our national seal, I 
desire to devote a few pages to Cave and his production. 
The first number bore the date Jan. 1, 1731, and during 
the first seven months of its existence had no motto on 
the first page, and there was little to remind its readers 
of its predecessor but the title. In the month of August, 
1731, Cave chose the words "Prodesse et delectare," 
— "To profit and amuse," — adapted from Horace. 
These continued to appear till the ensuing Januar}% 
after which neither that nor any other motto adorned 
any monthly issue. The first annual volume appeared 
in Januar}^, 1732, and some hundreds thereof bore on 
the titlepage as its only ornaments the motto " E pluri- 
bus unum " and the bouquet that accompanied it on the 
"Journal" of Motteux, both of which he originated. 
Of this very first edition there are copies in the State 

293 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

Library of Massachusetts and in tlie Public Library of 
Boston. 1 They are of somewhat better workmanship 
generally than their successors, and the type especially 
is more clear and legible than in the other editions, 
showing that they came from an early impression. In 
a few days the proprietor changed the plan of his title- 
page in several ways, and transferred the " Prodesse et 
delectare " from the monthly numbers to the position by 
the side of "E pluribus unum," which it kept ever after. 
There was no pretence of acknowledgment to Motteux, 
or any intimation that Cave did not design the title- 
page himself, he probably thinking that after the lapse 
of forty years the former's project had been entirely for- 
gotten, as it probably had been.^ 

As to the meaning Cave attached to his motto, he 
nowhere makes any sign, or gives any evidence that he 
cared, though he was a good Latinist and may naturally 
be supposed to have had some idea on the subject. At 
any rate, there seems some reason to infer that he 
understood it as we in this country generally under- 
stand it now, all the more that he would be likely to 
have given it a different interpretation from that held 
by the man from whom he appropriated it, and who was 
a much better scholar in every way than himself, since 
he could thus lessen his own chances of detection and 
also add insult to injury. To Cave's new venture it 

^ On the opposite page will be found a photo-copy of the first and 
of the second annual titlepage of the " Gentleman's Magazine," taken 
from originals nov/ in the British Museum. 

2 A similar instance of plagiarism is noticeable in the case of the 
"Atlantic Monthly," the title to which Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
claimed to have originated, but which was evidently taken from the 
" Atlantic Magazine," a monthly periodical well known in its day 
and first published in New York in 1824. 

"His usefulness began at once, for he christened the unborn babe, 
and the nameof ' The Atlantic,'' since so famous, was his suggestion." 
This was in 1857. " Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, by 
John T. Morse, Jr." 

294 



THE 

jeniJeman'^s Mazazine : 

o 

Or, T R a D E R's 

Monthly Intelligencer. 



VOLUME the First, for the Year 1731. 



, An impartial View of the 
various IVeekly ESSAYS, 
Controverfwl, Humorous and 
Political ; Religious^ Moral, 
and Satirical. 

I. Seled Pieces of POE-ri^i: 

II. A concife Relation of the 
moft reinarkaUe Tranfa^ions 
Sind Events, Domeftick and 



CONTAINING 

IV. The Prices of Goods- and 
Stocks, Bill of Mortality, 
Bankrupts declar'd, (j^c. 

V. A Catalogue of Books and 
Pamphlets publifhed. 

VI. Obfervations in Cardenin^y 
and a Lift of the Fairs. 

VII. A Table of C o n t e n t* 
ta'each Month. 



Foreign. 

Togctliei* with 

\n ALPHx\BETlCAL INDEX of the NAMES 

mentioned throughout die W hole, for the caficr finding 
any Occurrence^ Deaths Marriage^ Births Proinotion^ A'cidcrj^ 
Adventure^ Date^ or other Circurpftance relating to them. 



^'olleHed chiefly from the Public Papers, by Sylvan us UnjjJiN^ 



E Pluribus 




-r U N U Mi 



»Q iJ D U: Prlntecl, and Sold atSr7oi;:%Gi*^, by F. 'Jcfma in L^dgoti^ 
Jir(ctf aiiU by the B'ookfellers in Tcnvu nod CouiUrj.;* 



{^DCCXXXII. 



BARABBAS CAVE 

served cOS a piratical symbol flaunted in the face of his 
readers to indicate the nature of his freight and the 
source from which it came. Each number was "one 
composed of many," i. c, a true buccaneer's cargo plun- 
dered from every quarter where any treasure was to be 
had, and of course without the consent of his numerous 
victims. Its title must have struck them as the most 
eminently appropriate that the imagination could con- 
ceive, when they thought of the way its contents were 
collected, and none the less that Cave made no bones of 
altering and mutilating the various writings he stole, 
and meanwhile paying not the least attention to the 
indignant outcries and frantic abuse of those whom he 
had robbed. 

Jan. 18, 1738, we find the following in "Common 
Sense," one of Cave's chief marauding grounds: — 

" We can't help bestowing a Word or two upon the editor 
of the Gentleman's jNfagazine, of whom we may truly 
say he has not only robbed but murdered ' Common Sense.' 
Not content with stealing every thing he can lay his hands 
on, he so mangles and defaces what he steals that it is 
impossible their natural parents should know them. This 
Butcher bears a most barbarous hatred against every thing 
that looks like spirit in writing, — an ingenious sentiment 
has something in it he cannot bear. Wherever he meets a 
thought of wit, he cuts it off without mercy ; he is deter- 
mined no such thing shall be seen in his Magazine." 

Tliis is but a single instance of many similar protests, 
but Cave was not one to suffer any squeamish sensitive- 
ness to interfere with what he thought the best interests 
of his publication ; and the only practical notice he took 
of this display of puny spleen was to increase the num- 
ber of his stolen articles. In 1738 he purloined from 
" Common Sense " twenty-five of these, — long ones, 

295 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

too, — and during 1739 these had increased to thirty- 
live. In this way he punislied his helpless victims and 
brought their impotence more forcibly home to them, 
while proving that he harbored no ill will for their 
attacks. 

In January, 1738, Cave calls the Grubstreet Journal 
"that enemy to all works of merit," though in the 
course of three years he had appropriated exactly forty- 
four articles from its columns and used them for his 
own purposes. The obvious inference is that he thought 
works of no merit quite good enough for his readers. 

Cave cared nothing for abuse and was as thick-skinned 
as a saddle. 

In December, 1737, he coolly offers this reply to 
those who had complained of his unscrupulous robberies 
and disfigurations : — 

" The Essays, Letters, Verses, etc. sent us are the off- 
springs of their several Authors' Brains ; if we sometimes 
take the Liberty to cloath them better, to give them a freer 
Air, an easier Turn, a more polite Address, that they may 
be agreeable to the many Persons eminent for their Learn- 
ing, Wit and Quality, who are our Eeaders, how can their 
authors justly blame us ? This may serve as an answer 
to the numerous Clamours of our having curtailed, altered, 
abridged, etc., etc., some Pieces." 

I have made a careful perusal of every number of the 
" Gentleman's Magazine " that was published during 
the first eighty years of its existence, and the phrase " E 
pluribus unum " appears but twice in its columns in any 
connection.^ The first example is in the prelude to the 
volume for 1734, which is signed "Lucius" and dedi- 
cated "To the author of the Gentleman's Magazine, 

1 Even -when the motto of the " Gentleman's Magazine " was 
chosen by the United States, no notice thereof appeared in its columns. 

298 



J. SACKETTE 

Occasioned by his Motto E Pluribiis Unum." The 
writer of these sixty lines of monotonous doggerel 
begins with 

" Great chymical author ! uncqual'd in merit, 
From their mass you extract all their oyl and their spirit," 

and careers triumphantly onward from this brilliant 
overture to his final climax, — 

" Let the whole make amends, whore the charms of the Nine 
With the beauties and graces distinguishedly shine ; 
To your motto most true, for our monthly inspection, 
You-mix various rich sweets in one fragrant collection." 

Here the poet leaves his readers, like Timotheus, 
"placed on high," and to get down again as they best 
can. He evidently took it for granted that both Cave 
and his readers understood "E Pluribus Unum" to 
mean "One composed of many." 

The second of these examples of " E pluribus unum " 
occurs in February, 1747, where an epigram is printed 
with that phrase for a title. It is in obscure, common- 
place, eighteenth -century Latin, and one of the worst 
epigrams ever written in any tongue. It is signed "J. 
Sackette," ^ and reads thus : — ■ 

E Pluribus Unum 
Plurima sunt numerns; mihi cum sit distichon unum. 
Passim laudatum, mille perire sinam. 

The meaning seems to be, — ■ 

" The majority are mere ciphers ; let one distich of mine be 
generally praised, I will allow a thousand to perish." 

1 "Wishing to obtain a disinterested opinion as to this " elegiac 
couplet," I submitted it to an eminent Latin scholar at the British 
Museum and to another equally eminent at Harvard. The former 
characterized it as " Dog Latin of the unmuzzled order; " the latter 
wrote: " The sense, if there is any (which I doubt), is obscure. The 
verses read like some of the nonsense-verses written by school boys 
as metrical exercises." 

297 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

Here the sense plainly requires that "E pluribus 
unum" should signify "One chosen out of many." 

J. Sackette was curate of Folkestone, Rector of 
Hawkinge, and Master of East-bridge Hospital. In 1747 
he was seventy years of age. He was a frequent con- 
tributor of epigrams, both English and Latin, to Cave's 
periodical. They were always dull and pointless and 
often indecent. In spite of his age and his position, his 
fellow-poetasters were not moved to treat him with 
much respect. In the Magazine for 1747, vol. xvii., we 
find a translation of a silly epigram of his entitled " Ad 
Uxorem," which appeared in April of that year in 
compan}'- with the first advent on the English stage of 
Miss Polly Baker and her pitiful appeal to the sympa- 
thies of the New England Judiciary : — 

" Make of our house a bee-hive, spouse 1 
Be waspish ! Drones attack I 
But be to me a busy bee; 
Be honey to old Sack.'" 

Two other glittering brilliants had burst forth from 
Sackette's pen in the year preceding, which tend to 
show how much drivelling imbecility can be condensed 
into a narrow space : — 

" One Swallow makes no summer. 
Exceeding cold ; in frost and snow, 

I set my nose to th' rummer ; 
Till swallow after swallow made 

Me almost thiuk 'twas summer." (July, 1746.) 

Epigkam 

The pope of Rome has got a maggot, 
He must submit to fire and faggot ; 
But with his holiness's grace, 

We '11 have a brush in the first place. (August, 1746.) 
298 



THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE 

It seems sad that the two authors of all this senile 
verbiage should be the only persons connected v/ith the 
source of our national motto to refer to it in Cave's 
columns.^ 

It is also still more sad that our motto should have 
come to us, even indirectly, as a part of the stolen goods 
of such a notorious character as Edward Cave, and from 
such a disreputable publication as the " Gentleman's 
Magazine." The truth is that, what with its unscrupu- 
lous and mutilated piracies, its pretended reports of 
parliamentary debates, ^ its absurd stories and general 
vulgarity, its knavish tricks and falsehoods, its silly 
poetry and ridiculous epigrams, with its numberless 
other abnormities, embedded like coprolites in its pages, 
,the " Gentleman's Magazine " was a perfect cesspool of 
vile and unwholesome mediocrity ; and there is no exag- 
geration in saying that it did more to degrade and 
demoralize its readers than any other publication that 
was ever issued. From its stolen titlepage, to the 
dirty doggerel at its end, every number, and every page 
of every number, took an active part towards debasing 
the British Philistine and making him worse than he 
naturally was. As was said by the "London Maga- 
zine," apropos of some of its vilest features, — 

1 Cave prided himself greatly on his choice collection of epigrams, 
and his magazine is profusely freckled with them. lie was wont to 
offer substantial inducements that he might secure the very cream of 
this kind of literature. In January, 1735, we find "Prize Epigram 
No. 11 on a Gentleman whose Thigh was put out of joint by a Young 
Lady whom he attempted to kiss, as she was playing on her 
Spinnet." 

2 Nichols, in his " Literary Anecdotes," states that he saw Dr. 
Johnson only six days before his death, and it is a satisfaction to 
know th.at he said " the only part of his writings Avhich then gave 
him any compunction was his account of the Debates in the ' Gentle- 
man's Magazine.' " This was much to the great Moralist's credit. 
Undoubtedly the spectre of Cave haunted him on his death-bed. 

299 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGIITS 

" Thy title-page the gilded stool explains, 
AVhere all within is excrement, not brains." ^ 

These were some of the reasons, undoubtedly, why no 
copy of the " Gentleman's Magazine " can be traced to 
the libraries of either Franklin, Jefferson, or Adams. 
They would not have a copy of it on their premises. 
And Franklin, familiar as he must have been with "E 
pluribus unum " on its cover, in all probability ignored 
it as a feature of our seal for the same reasons, and not 
merely because he had a better one at hand.'-^ He was 
accustomed to write for the magazine, though very 
rarely, and he did not take the trouble to see Cave when 
in England, in spite of his being a fellow-printer. He, 
also, did praise the work highly, after Cave's death, in 
his letter to William Strahan, as " in my opinion by far 
the best," and he did promise to advertise and recom- 
mend it " in the papers here at New York, New Haven 
and Boston," but I can find no proof whatever that he 
ever did anything to bring it before the people. Cer- 
tiiinly, the papers up to 1760 do not contain a single 
advertisement or mention of the "Gentleman's Maga- 
zine," with the single exception of the one I have be- 
fore mentioned on page 64, not even Franklin's own 
"Pennsylvania Gazette." The letter to Strahan must 

1 Allibone, in his wonderfully thorough and accurate Encj'clopsedla, 
says: "Edmund Burke entitled it [the "Gentleman's Magazine"] 
'one of the most chaste and instructive miscellanies of the age.' " I 
can find no autliority for this statement, after a long and careful ex- 
amination of all the writings of Burke, including his correspondence. 

2 After the publication in Cave's magazine of the electrical dis- 
coveries of Franklin, one of his poets offered some scores of lauda- 
tory verses, ending with 

" Urban, we own the picture just, 
To tliee the loarn'd their treasures trust, 
From every cliine to thee consigu'd, 
For thee the\- busy ev'ry wind ; 
Thy rich museum's sacred store 
Shall last wliea Sloan's shall be no more." 
300 



THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE 

have been nothing more than an act of affable and irre- 
sponsible conciliation, at which the writer was always 
an adept. ^ 

As in the course of time Cave changed his plan from 
the plunder of other periodicals to the publication of 
original contributions in his own, the magazine gradually 
overflowed from year to year with acres upon acres of 
silly, pretentious trash, the effervescence of mediocre 
intellects. Whoever had brought forth an indecent 
epigram or a dirty riddle that could find a refuge no- 
where else; whoever had invented a quack medicine, 
like "the opening pill," or a panacea, like "tar- water;" 
whoever had unearthed an inscription of dubious mean- 
ing and had sought to elucidate it by an explanation 
based on senseless conjecture that would have driven 
an intelligent archceologist into convulsions; whoever 
had a promising humbug to foist upon the community, 
like the Centaur, of which there is a most disgusting 

1 If any reader should feel disposed to doubt the truth of my 
statements in regard to the quality of the "Gentleman's Magazine," 
he has only to consult the number for June, 1734, p. 328, where he will 
find " A Riddle," signed " Silvius," that would not be published in 
any paper of this day and is too obscene even for the pen of "Walt 
Whitman, and if he cares to look farther, he will discover many 
other effusions, both in prose and verse, equally objectionable and on 
the same grounds. 

This riddle was too much even for one of Cave's scatterbrained, 
sycophantic poets, and he actually ventured to caution his patron in 
regard to that and similar contributions. This hint appears in the 
effusion I have already quoted as illustrating the meaning of our 
motto, and thus furnishes a second degrading point of contact and 
suggestion. 

"lu enigmas lo! some their deep meaning close shut, 
Or with artful expressions gild scandal and smut, 
Witli due caution attend to such dissolute pleaders 
Nor to liumor the worst, pique the best of your readers." 

As my readers may easily imagine, the riddle must have been very 
bad indeed to extort a criticism from such a source. It is not often 
that Cloacina feels impelled to admonish Cloaca. 

301 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

picture and a still more disgusting description in the 
number for April, 1751, — all these charlatans and im- 
postors rushed as with one accord to the " Gentleman's 
Magazine," where they were sure of a cordial and sym- 
pathetic welcome from Cave, who gladly added their 
contributions to his limbo of 

" Things without head or tail, or form or grace, 
A wild, forced, glaring, unconuected mass." 

Here they were sure to meet another host of hacks 
and quacks, who had done their part towards cramming 
the magazine with every product of ambitious inca- 
pacity; criticisms silly and absurd, beyond the power 
of words to describe, and which revealed nothing so 
much as an utter lack of learning and common sense; 
translations entirely void of spirit or accuracy; metrical 
effusions that seemed to be poetry merely because each 
first line was accentuated with a capital; until each 
volume was a vast Tom Tiddler's ground piled high 
with the refuse of all those who had sought and found 
full liberty to indulge their weakness for seeing them- 
selves in print and to publish any nonsense that might 
have come into their heads. By the middle of the cen- 
tury and at the time of Cave's death, the era of original 
contributions had reached its zenith, and a cataclysm 
was rushing on of folly and humbug, that represented 
every form of pretension that ignorance could incubate, 
or dulness set forth, or assurance let loose upon the 
credulity of readers less amply supplied with shallow 
sciolism than the writers, — descriptions of Noah's ark, 
as lucid as mud, "Mr. Whitehurst's Pyrometer," "The 
Plagiarisms of JNIilton," "A Map of the Garden of Eden 
before God destroyed it," "A receipt for the bloody 
flux," "Ode on Daffey's Elixir," "The Pig," "To a 
Flea," "To Gin," — 

"Hail, mighty Giu, thou life-preserving draml " 
a02 



THE LONDON MAGAZINE 

In the issue for February, 1748, p. 86, we find a 
precious tidbit of ten lines "On the Ladies chewing 
Tobacco," ending with, — 

"For Avell she knows, she owes to this 
The balmy breath, th' ambrosial kiss." 

Poems, long and dreary, in Latin and in English, on 
"Life, Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell;" pictures 
of sea-calves, ridiculous in the extreme, v/ith still more 
ridiculous accounts of their nature and habits ; treatises 
of earthquakes and certain cures for the bite of a mad 
dog and for cancer; articles on "the advantages of a 
convent for penitent prostitutes " and 

" Old pagaa figures, scraps of broken stone, 

Strange beasts and monsters that might puzzle Sloan, 
And screws and levers, water-works and stuff," 

as one of his admirers candidly admits in the Introduc- 
tion to the first volume for 1749. 

The "London Magazine" of April, 1738, p. 169, 
thus pays its aromatic compliments to Cave: — 

" Confiding in his darts of lead, 
And huge reserve of lies, 
lie vainly trusts his barren head, 

And safer science flies : 
Industrious to display his puny parts. 
He falls by nothing, like his own best arts. 

" His rivals laugh to see him strain, 
Flound'ring thro' thick and thin, 
While Grubstreet garrets strive in vain 

To save him, brib'd with ale and gin : 
Unhappy Urban, thou must surely fail, 
Whom Grubstreet cannot save with gin and ale ! 

" Collecting, as he used to do. 
He may protract his fate, 
— Old almanacs and ballads too — 

And he can steal debate : 
Still will his mangling Magazine be known 
By trifles, useful to himself alone." 
303 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

In June, 1732, we find " The Lady's Dressing-Roorn " 
by Dr. Swift, of which tlie less said the better. This 
is followed in the next number by "A Panegyric on 
Cowardice," which ends with an anecdote of the true 
Cave-ine quality : — 

" Fear is really Medicinal. King James First being in 
great Danger and the medicines prescrib'd him not operat- 
ing, a Philosopher, reflecting on the wonderous Efficacy of 
Fear, order'd a Pistol to be fired in his JNIajesty's Chamber ; 
which answer'd Expectation and saved the King's Life at 
the small Expense of new Linings to his Breeches." 

In 1748 Cave was favored with a new contributor, and 
it is easy to comprehend the glowing enthusiasm of 
his welcome when we perceive the quality of the wares 
he brought; for though a mere youth, he appears to 
have been a precocious Don Juan. In the month of 
May we find a poem " On Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 
by a young Lad at Oakham School. Set him by his 
master." A few lines out of the fifty are here given as 
a specimen : — 

" Such once -was Joseph, when the wily dame, 
By lust embolden'd, and by want of shame, 
Seiz'd his chaste robe : her eyes that darted fire, 
Spoke the fierce impulse of inflam'd desire. 
Loose flow'd her tresses, while her open vest 
Betray'd the panting beauties of her breast ; 
Her eager lip and glowing cheek were spread 
With unavailing warmth, and conscious red," etc., etc. 

Verily the "young Lads" of Oakham School must 
have been a promising lot, and their master, llev. John 
Adcock, M.A., a burning and a shining light, the 
Eddystone of his profession! One is prompted to 
exclaim with the poet, — 

" Quanta Schola, et magister 1 
Quis est pejor, hie an ista ? " 
304 



CAGLIOSTRO AND BARNUM 

One of liis pupils was Dr. Dodd,^ who was finally 
executed for forgery. This divine was always a favor- 
ite of the fair sex, and liked to comfort the weaker 
vessel. In spite of his educational advantages, he was 
not in the least like Joseph. Probably the "Gentle- 
man's Magazine" formed a part of the curriculum of 
that institution of varied learning, "pour encourager 
les autres." 

To cap the climax of the monstrosities between those 
pale blue covers came the monthly obituaries that added 
fresh pangs to those readers v/ho were constrained, like 
the guilty barrators and peculators in tlie "Inferno," to 
look upon the lake of boiling pitch into which they 
were erelong to be hurled. 

All the attractions above cited, and a myriad more, 
proved that while Cave began his worthless and nefarious 
career as the Barabbas of his trade, he ended by becom- 
ing a mixture of Cagliostro and Barnura, and by un- 
scrupulously pandering to every possible phase of human 
credulity and ignorance, of vice and weakness. ^ Void 
of all natural honor, taste, or decency; hardened by the 
friction of a rough and vulgar youth, this "dull, oily 
printer," as Carlyle terms him, had no reluctance to fill 
his pockets by appealing to every ignoble motive or base 
temptation that might augment his subscription list. 
And yet in one of his early numbers he complacently 
observes, " In the opinion of some booksellers, we give 
too much for sixpence," and in the issue for August, 

1 Dr. Docld, as Carlyle describes him in Paris, "in English 
curriclc-and-foiir, vrafted glorious among the principalities and 
rascals," but too soon, alas ! to be drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn. 

2 In his magazine for April, 1T4S, p. 184, Cave did not hesitate 
even to give a base stab to Shakespeare in a distich too dirty for 
quotation or even perusal. 

A similar tribute to " Boston in New England " is to be found in 
the number for July, 173S, p. 380. It is not quotable. 
20 305 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

1731, lie says, "Without presuming too much on our 
own merit, we may venture to affirm that the ' Gentle- 
man's Magazine,' when collected into volumes, will be 
read by Posterity with equal pleasure, as the best test 
of the writings of the present age." Cave's vanity was 
equal to that of Voltaire and Victor Hugo united.^ 

In the midst of all this chaotic darkness, I find one 
solitary gleam of light, for which the "Gentleman's 
Magazine" deserves due credit and which I desire to 
perpetuate, so far as it is possible for my pen to do so. 
It appears in vol. xlv. for the year 1775, when Cave 
had been dead over twenty years and had been suc- 
ceeded by David Henry. In the customary poetical 
address to "Mr. Urban," with which every volume 
was prefaced, and which in this case was not printed till 
after Jan. 1, 1776, are the following verses in reference 
to our Revolutionary War, then so well advanced. 
They are full of foreboding for the British cause and of 
enthusiastic augury for our future : — 

" Grieved at the past, yet more we fear 
The horrors of the coming year. 
Ships sunk or plundered, slaughtered hosts, 
Towns burnt and desolated coasts. 
Yet, sever'd by th' Atlantic main, 
Though great, our efforts must be vain : 
Resources so remote must fail. 
Nor skill, nor valour can prevail : 

1 In the preface of vol. ii., 1741, Cave egotistically refers to the 
reprinting of his periodical in America, and says: " The ' Gentleman's 
Magazine ' is read as far as the English language extends, and we see 
it reprinted from several presses in Great Britain, Ireland, and the 
Plantations." 

Mr. George R. Fortescue, the assistant keeper of printed books at 
the British Museum, who is a most learned and reliable authority on 
all such subjects, informs me that he is " quite certain that no printed 
edition of the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' was ever brought out in the 
colonies." 

308 



AN INSPIRED POET 

Wlien wimls, ^vaves, elements and foes, 
III vain all human means oppose. 
At length, -when all these contests cease. 
And Britain weary'd rests in peace, 
Our sons, beneath yon western skies, 
Shall see one vast republic rise. 
Another Athens, Sparta, Rome, 
Siiall there unbounded sway assume ; 
Thither her ball shall Empire roll 
And Europe's pampered states control, 
Though Xerxes ruled and lashed the sea, 
The Greeks of old still would be free ; 
Xor could the power and wealth of Spain 
Th' United Netherlands regain." 

The writer of these lines seems to have been inspired 
by a marvellous prophetic foresight and a spirit and acu- 
men that one seeks in vain elsewhere among the con- 
tributors to the "Gentleman's IMagazine." His name I 
have been unable to discover. The only wonder is that 
his verses were allowed to be printed. 

They serve to illustrate the truth of what Gibbon 
calls " the tolerating maxim of the elder Pliny: ' Nullum 
esse librum, ttim malum, ut non ex aliqua parte pro- 
desset,' " — that no book is so bad that profit may not 
be got from part of it. 

The only really great name connected with the 
" Gentleman's Magazine/' during Cave's rcrjime was that 
of Samuel Johnson, whose reports of Parliamentary 
debates that never took place served to give it a certain 
life and strength which saved it from putrefaction. 
Dr. Johnson was "the last of the tories," and in 
1778 Boswell informs us that " He said I am willing to 
love all mankind except Americans, and his inflam- 
mable corruption bursting into horrid fire, he breathed 
out threatenings and slaughter, calling them rascals, 
robbers and pirates, and exclaiming lie 'd burn and 

destroy them." 

307 



IIISTOKIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

"Sir, they are a race of convicts and ouj^ht to be 
thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." 

In vol. xlviii. p. 369, the same year with this pul- 
verizing explosion, the "Gentleman's Magazine" printed 
some "Particulars of the Life and Character of General 
Washington," signed "An Old Soldier," in which the 
writer essayed " to damn him with faint praise " and 
ended with a sneer that was so pungent and amusing as 
to fix it forever in the memory, like a rankling barb : 

" It should not be denied, however, that, all things con- 
sidered, he really has performed Avonders. That he is 
alive to command an army, or that an army is left him to 
command, might be sufficient to ensure him the reputation 
of a great General, if British Generals -were any longer 
what British Generals used to be. In short, I am of the 
opinion of the Marquis de la Fayette, that any other gen- 
eral in the world than General Howe would have beaten 
General Washington and any other general in the world 
than General Washington would have beaten General 
Howe." 

It must be admitted that there is a germ of truth in 
this criticism, and that many things besides the admitted 
greatness of Washington must be taken into account in 
summing up the real sources of our final success. 

Baron de Kalb, in a letter to the Count de Broglie 
dated Nov. 7, 1778 (printed in vol. xxiii. of B. F. 
Stevens's "Facsimiles of Manuscripts") says: "I do 
not wish to decry his merit, nor the many good qualities 
which he possesses, but he is a poor general : his repu- 
tation is due to good fortune, to the misconduct, to the 
blindness of his adversaries, and especially to Provi- 
dence." 

After making every allowance for the wonderful 
nobility of our great Chief's character — "the best 
time's best " — for his marvellous endurance, devotion, 

SOS 



WASHINGTON 

judgment, common-sense, and braver}', for all those 
manly qualities, in short, which made him the very 
backbone of our triumph,^ we can hardly attribute to 
him true military genius. And as for the part taken 
by Providence, if we come to that, we must allow that 
if it had not been for the death of Braddock and that 
of Wolfe, Saratoga and Yorktown would never have been 
heard of, and our independence would have been post- 
poned to the Greek Kalends, for Braddock would most 
certainly have secured "Washington's promotion in the 
British army, and, waiving that supposition, had Wolfe 
survived Quebec, he would surely have brought the 
Burgoyne campaign to a very different issue and prob- 
ably have ended with the capture of Wasliington and 
, his forces. 

Thus it is pretty clear that we received far more 

effective aid from Providence vioL Fort Duquesne and 

; Quebec, that is, with some little additional help from 

1 As Mr. Goldwin Smith has written of Washington with such 

trutli and acumen, — 
[ " History has hardly a stronger case of an indispensable man. His 

form, like all other forms of the Revolution, has no doubt been seen 
. through a golden haze of panegyric. We can hardly number among 

the greatest captains a general •who acted on so small a scale, and 

who, though he was the soul of the war, never won a battle. In 
g that respect Carlyle, who threatened to take George down a peg or 

two, might have made good his threat. But he could not have 

stripped Washington of any part of his credit for patriotism, wisdom, 
^and courage; for the union of enterprise with prudence; for in- 
Stegrity and truthfulness; for simple dignity of character; for tact 

and forbearance in dealing with men; above all, for serene fortitude 

in the darkest hour of his cause and under trials from the perversity, 
j' insubordination, jealousy, and perfidy of those around him severer 
J than any defeat. 

I " An English gentleman sees in Washington his idea as surely as 
; he does not see it in Franklin, Samuel Adams, or Patrick Henry. 

It has been truly said that Washington and Wellington have much 
I in common." — Tlic United Slates, an Outline of Political History, 1893, 

p. 9G. 

309 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

the French, than we got at a Liter date from Louis XVI. 
and all his ministry and his troops. Queerly enough, 
in 1755 and 1759, the Colonists imagined that the 
French were fighting against them. Verily the great 
things of Providence, as Job says, "are past finding 
out." When Adams wrote in October, 1755, alx)ut 
"removing the turbulent Gallicks," he was far from 
foreseeing the future, and evidently knew as little 
about Providence and his plans as Warburton did about 
Moses. This merely proves that nothing can be safely 
predicted in this world but death and taxes. It is a 
great encouragement in various ways to poor humanity. 
As Cowper says, 

" Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, 
The clouds ye so nauch dread 
Are big with mercies, and shall break 
In blessings on your head." 

And so it came to pass that the clouds, both of death 
in defeat and of death in victory, were but the lowering 
mists that obscured for a time the far-off brightness of 
a glorious dawn. 

Some time after Cave's death a portrait, printed by 
Kyte in 1740, was engraved by C. Grignion. See Gent. 
Mag. Aug. 1856. It was thought a good likeness, and 
it bore the following inscription : — 

« Edward Cave, ob. 10 Jan., 1754, aetat. 62. 
The first Projector of the Monthly Magazines. 

' Th' invention all admired, and each how he 
To be th' Inventor miss'd.' " 

The quotation was most felicitous. The lines are from 
the sixth book of "Paradise Lost," which narrates the 
defeat of the rebel angels. " Th' Inventor " was Satan, 
and "th' invention" that "hollow engine, pregnant mth 

310 



OUR NATIONAL MOTTO 

[infernal flame," Avhieh "disgorged its devilish glut, 
chained thunderbolts and hail," to the discomfiture of 
INIichael and his heavenly host. It was from Satan's 

/'magazine" that its ammunition came. As a fitting 
climax to Cave's unsavory career, one may well quote 

[the epitaph of Baron Zaehdarm in "Sartor Resartus," 

" Si monumentuni quaeris, 
Fimetum adspice." 

We have been singularly unfortunate in our choice 
• of a motto, and it would be difficult to find one more 
infelicitous or more inappropriate for a great nation 
than "E pluribus unum." Surely nothing could be 
more unbecoming or more insignificant, more prosaic 
or uninteresting ; a motto of modern, plebeian, and non- 
classic origin, with no literary or historic associations, 
and which is no older than the last decade of the seven- 
teenth century; a motto utterly void of all religious 
or moral tone, or of any patriotic or inspiring senti- 
; ment ; a motto that may mean either union or disunion, 
according to one's sympathies, and which, unhappily, 
meant the latter in the mind of its originator ; a motto 
that might have well served for the use of Jefferson's 
seceding "country" during the War of the Rebellion; a 
motto that was compiled by one French refugee of dubi- 
ous character, who was finally killed in a brothel, and 
that was bestowed upon the United States by another 
French refugee, who denied all allegiance to the nation 
that sheltered and protected him, and who " conveyed " 
it from the titlepage of the "Gentleman's Magazine," 
the publisher of which (who was the literary robber 
of his day and had stolen the motto from another peri- 
odical) lived by the plunder and maiming of other help- 
less publications, and by the printing of original stories 
and poetry so filthy that they would not at the present 

311 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

day be tolerated in any house in Christendom above the 
rank of a bagnio.^ 

The facts I have presented show clearly how little 
value the congressional fathers of '70 attached to a 
national motto, in spite of its natural import and of the 
prolific vigor that might well have been infused into it 
by those who so pre-eminently 

" Knew the seasons when to take 
Occasion by the hand and make 
The bounds of freedom wider yet." 

In truth, the whole matter seems to have been dis- 
cussed, if it were discussed at all, in a hasty, perfunctory 
way and then dismissed and forgotten. "E pluribus 
unum " was finally adopted as an easy solution of the 
question, and simply because it happened to accompany 
a plausible and taking sketch of a coat of arms. Frank- 
lin was the only member of the committee, or of Con- 
gress, who offered any suggestion at all, and this partly 
owing, as I have said, to the fact that he had an emi- 
nently fit and characteristic motto at hand. As to his 
colleagues, their silent indifference to that part of their 
duties proved that, whatever significance they might 
attach to the seal itself, the motto they regarded merely 
as a necessary but trivial appendix. It is impossible to 
avoid a feeling of regret at this lack of interest when 

1 Our national flag has every claim upon the pride of our people, 
as an original, beautiful, and picturesque creation. It is worthy in 
every way of the graphic and noble lines in which the poet Drake 
has glorified and idealized it. But it will be a long time ere any 
poet will try to portray the beauties of E pluribus unum. 

To the rest of the unseemly discrepancies of our motto may be 
added the fact that it may also signify " One of the dead," or " One 
composed of the dead." This is apparent from the works of Plau- 
tus, a master of the Latin tongue, who uses it in this sense. In the 
" Trinummus," act ii. sc. 2, v. 29, Philto says to his son: " Quin me 
ad plures penetravi prius? " — " Why have I not rather descended 
to the dead ere this ? " 

312 



GREAT rOSSIBILITIES 

one reflects on what they miglit have done, and on the 
greatness of their opportunity to aid a young and 
struggling nation by adding to its insignia one at least 
of " those thoughts that breathe and words that burn " 
which had been bequeathed by the past for their learn- 
ing, and, like "that large utterance of the early gods," 
Avere still the inspiration of those who know. To say 
nothing of the offering from Franklin's pen, think of 
the many ennobling sentiments that must have been 
present in their minds, and especially at a time when 
the treasures of the past were so freely drawn upon for 
the adornment of a new future, and the noble dead were 
invoked for the enrichment of the noble living ; golden 
maxims from the lips of Euripides, Cato, Marcus 
Aurelius, Bacon, Shakespeare, ^lilton, Sydney, and the 
long bead-roll of heroic souls with a capacity for great 
thoughts; thoughts "that on the stretched forefinger 
of all time sparkle forever;" thoughts that had been 
mighty incentives to glorious sacrifices ; that had nerved 
heroes to deeds of high emprise; that had been the 
reminders of a stately past and the rallying cries of 
those who had worthily died for Liberty, and thus con- 
secrated themselves in their final moments to mankind, 
as an abiding destiny and the embodiment of great ideas. 
Even the humble Canton of Uri, exalted by an 
honorable and lofty ambition and confiding in the merits 
of a righteous cause, assumed for its motto, " Pro Deo, 
fide et libertate facere et ferre " — " To do and to endure 
for God, faith and liberty." How true to his own 
motto was the greatly daring Bradshaw ! " Non nobis 
solum nati sumus," — "We are not made for ourselves 
alone. " How grand was the " Manus haec inimica tyran- 
nis,"i that Algernon Sydney audaciously wrote in the 

^ "Manus haec inimica tyrannis '' ought to have been the motto 
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, instead of " Ense petit placi- 

313 



HISTORIC sidp:-ligiits 

album at Copenhagen, and thereby offered abundant proof 
of the intrepidity inspired by his own motto, " Sanctus 
amor patriae dat animum," — "The sacred love of 
country gives courage." Who can read the motto of 
Wellington without recalling the mutual lustre, as 
"with interchange of gift," that glorified both him and 
it? "Virtutis fortuna comes," — "Fortune the com- 
panion of manly valor," — or that with which Nelson 
was similarly endowed, "Palmam qui meruit f era t," — 
"Let him who has earned the prize bear it away;" 
both mottoes eminently befitting the sons of that nation 
to which Edward I. bequeathed his famous "Dieu et 
mon droit." 

But when we come to " E pluribus unum " as the 
symbolic badge of a mighty nation, what have we to 
offer? Is there any "large utterance" in that? Is 
there any suggestion of a great ideal or of a national 
destiny that urges us from better up to best ? Was any 
one ever stimulated to heroic deeds by this " imperfect 
speaker"? Did any one ever fight for this nullius 
films, this bastard issue of dubious antecedents? Did 
any one ever die, or is any one likely to do so, with 
these words on his lips ? Did any one ever derive aid 
or comfort from their stale and lifeless forms ? To all 
these questions there is but one inevitable answer, and 

dam sub libertate quietem." The former •was admitted by Algernon 
Sydney himself to have come from his pen, TV'hile the latter ■was not, 
and it was, moreover, a most appropriate sentiment for a young re- 
public founded on a hatred of tyrants. The latter phrase, on the 
contrary, is a mere unmeaning appendix in its present position, and 
its attendant emblems make it particularly absurd. Who seeks a 
tranquil repose ? The Indian, of course, which is ridiculous. An 
Indian would be much more likely to make a solitude with his toma- 
hawk and scalping-knife and call it peace. Who ever heard of an 
Indian with a sword ? The whole design is a silly incongruity, 
almost as much so as the missing link with a curiously curved 
tail on some of our colonial notes. 

314 



OUR NATIONAL MOTTO 

every citizen who has tlie best interests of his country 
at his heart must regret that our present motto was so 
unfortunately chosen and is so utterly unfit for a great 
republic. Its sentiment is contradicted by the very 
eagle that bears it aloft in lurid triumph towards the 
eternal stars, the unworthy nucleus of a glory bestowed 
upon it merely by the force of inauspicious and irre- 
sponsible happenings. 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



SUPPLEMENT 

Is the fifty-seventh note of the first volume of this 
work I have noticed a prevalent report that President Brad- 
shaw was buried in Jamaica. The exertions of a valued 
relative in England have since furnished me with the 
following letter from the pen of Bryan Edwards, the histo- 
rian, which throws some light upon the obscurity of that 
transaction. It appears from the inquiries I have made, 
that there are still extant two patents of land, situated 
near the town of Martha Brae, in the name of James Brad- 
shaw, and which were surveyed June 4th, 1688, one for 
250 acres, the other for 650. Within their confines is a 
high hill which is marked and still known by the name of 
Gun Hill. On that hill three estates are now united and 
possessed by George Cunningham and Edward Atherton, 
Esqrs., namely Green Park, Greenside, and Maxfield. On 
the plat of the late "William Campbell the gun itself is laid 
down ; and the old negroes affirm that they have seen it ; 
but the industry of the Crown surveyors who went over 
the land a few years since did not discover it. Nor is it 
extraordinary that the luxuriant growth of vegetation and 
its rapid decomposition around the spot should have long 
since concealed even so imperishable an object from the 
eye of a superficial observer. 

The original of the following letter is in the possession 
of a branch of the ancient and respectable family of the 
Bradshaws, who possess property at Chipping Sodbury in 
Gloucestershire, and in whose hands are deposited the 
documents which ordained the execution of the first 

Charles. 

January 13, 1775. 
My Dear Sir, — I have great pleasure in obeying your com- 
mands in regard to the epitaph I told you of on John Bradshaw. 

8ia 



SUPPLEMENT 

The circumstances of his burial in Jamaica are said to be these : 
The President died in England a year before Cromwell. His son,^ 
James Bradshaw, seeing from the general spirit which began to 
prevail, that the restoration of the royal line would probably take 
place on the Protector's death, and being -well assured ou that 
event that such of tlie late king's judges as should be then living 
could have little hopes of safety, was appreliensive that even the 
grave would not protect his father's ashes from insult ; and having 
many friends and relatives among Cromwell's soldiers who had 
lately settled in Jamaica on the conquest of that island from the 
Spaniards, he embarked thither with his father's corpse, which 
the soldiery on his arrival interred with great honor on a very 
high hill near a harbor now called Martha Brae, and placed a cannon 
on the grave by way of memorial. James' apprehensions were 
well grounded, for the parliament, on the restoration, ordered the 
bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw to be dug up and hung 
up at Tyburn, — a foolish and impotent mark of vengeance, which 

1 Bradshaw had no legitimate children. He bequeathed the most 
of his property, which had nearly all been given to him by Parlia- 
ment for his services, to his wife for her life, and afterwards to his 
nephew Henry, the eldest son of his brother of the same name. 
Mrs. Bradshaw died before her husband, but his nephew did not 
enjoy his estates more than a few months, for th.e Kestoration 
quickly deprived him of them. Ilasted, in his " Histojy of Kent," 
1782, vol. ii. p. ."40, states that Bradshaw owned " the estate of 
Somerhill, alias Tunbridgc," and that " he was succeeded in it by 
his natural son," but he gives no authority for this assertion, though 
generally exact and painstaking. Bradshaw's will, whicli is pub- 
lished vcrhatim by Earwaker, contains no mention whatever of any 
natural son, or of any James Bradshaw, and Hasted fails to suggest 
in what way an illegitimate child could acquire a title to any landed 
property without the aid of some such instrument. Undoubtedly the 
" natural son " was as mythical as the epitaph, and was the invention 
of tlie Royalists, who started many similar malicious fables after 
Bradshaw's death, not only about him, but concerning Cromwell and 
other prominent leaders. See " Life of Mr. Cleveland, a Natural Son 
of Oliver Cromwell." Five volumes, and all pure invention. 

"The chief mourner at his funeral was Henry Bradshaw, Esq., 
Xephew of the deceased." From "East Cheshire, Past and Pres- 
ent," by J. P. Earwaker, 1880. This writer is highly commended 
in the " Academy," vol. xviii., p. 259, for " Ids earnest and conscien- 
tious carefulness." "His statements or conclusions should be ac- 
cepted without reserve or hesitation." 

317 



HISTORIC SIDE-LIGHTS 

however, the remains of IJradshaw, tlirough the pious care of his 
son, fortunately escaped. Certain it is that the body of Bradshaw 
could not be found in Westminster Abbey, where it was supposed 
to be buried. 

Such is the tradition whicli prevails in Jamaica ; but, though I 
always entertained a great respect for the memory of this distin- 
guished person, as well from the firmness and ability which he 
displayed on the king's trial as from his uniform conduct and 
steady virtue in his opposition afterwards to the tyranny of Ci'om- 
well, yet I should have treated the tradition as wholly fabulous, 
had not a gentleman, of strict honor and veracity, now living in Ja- 
maica, assured me that in consequence of it he had caused a search 
to be made for the cannon said to be placed on the grave, which 
he actually found on the reputed spot. The place is now so 
entirely covered with wood that he believes no human footstep 
has trod there for a century past, and it is clear that a great exer- 
tion of human strength, which is seldom bestowed (voluntarily at 
least) in such a climate on trivial occasions, must necessarily 
have been employed in placing the cannon where it lies. This 
gentleman found also, by searching the public records, that the 
land was afterwards patented in the name of James Bradshaw. 

On this concurrent testimony it was proposed to erect a cenotaph 
to the President's memory ; and the lines which I repeated to you 
were intended by way of inscription, a copy of which you have 
herewith. I wish this account may give you satisfaction, being 
with great regard, etc., etc., 

Bryan Edwards. 

Stranger, 

Ere thou pass, contemplate this marble; 

Nor regardless be told 

that near its base lies deposited 

the dust of 

JOHN BRADSHAW, 

who nobly superior to all selfish regards, 

despising alike what the world calls greatness 

the blast of calumny and the terrors of returning vengeance, 

presided in that illustrious band 

of Heroes and Patriots, 

who openly, and fairly, adjudged 

Charles Stuart, King of England, 

to a public and exemplary death; 

thereby presenting to the astonished world, 

and transmitting down tlirough applauding ages, 

318 



SUPPLEMENT 

the most glorious instance of unshaken virtue, 

love of freedom and impartial justice, 

ever exhibited 

on the blood-stained theatre of human action. 

Oh! Header! 
pass not on till thou hast blessed his memory; 

and never forget 
that rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God. 



INDEX 



Acta Sanctorum, 78. 

Adams, C. F., 34 n.; on Gibbon, 107. 

Adams, John, seconds resolution, 1; 
on the committee for desip;iiing a 
seal, 2 ; on expansion, 33 «. ; disserta- 
tion on the Canon and Teudal Law, 
34 ». ; on the Canon Law, 73 n. ; his 
veracitv, Il9 ; attitude towards 
Franldin, 120-121; Ciiarles L, 121 ; 
Cromwell, 121; the Pentateuch, 134; 
Franklin, 134; the preat seal, 153-154; 
Moses, 105; liev. Mr. DulUeld, 105; 
New York politics, 173; Hercules, 
184-185, 18S, 216; teaching at Worces- 
ter, IDO; Virtue, 234; Dradsiiaw, 
242 «. ; Jeremy Gridley, 253-255; on 
the publication by Hollis of his Dis- 
sertation, 254; Jefferson and the Dec- 
laration of Independence, 207 n. ; 
Wythe, 272; Wythe's friendship, 
273 n.; sketch seen by, 283; the tur- 
bulent Gallicks, 310; Providence, 310. 

Adams, John Quincy, and Hoses, 160; 
the Pentateuch. 171; Old Testament, 
171-172 ; philoloRy, 173. 

Adams, Mrs., on Shakespeare, 21 n.; 
in En<;land, 22 «.; grave of Thomas 
Hollis, 24a n. 

Adcock, Uev. John, and Oakham School, 
304. 

Adeimantus and the gods, 197 n. 

Aguinaldo, 33 n. 

Allen, Andrew H., librarian, 157 n.; 
Lossing's sketch, 284. 

Amberly, Viscount, and Ananias and 
Sapphira, 120 n. 

America, prophecy about, in " Gentle- 
man's JIagazine," 306. 

American Antiquarian Society, Go-(54. 

American Philosophical Society, seal of, 
269 n. 

American poets and their deference, 18. 

Anabasis, the, 193-194. 

21 3: 



Anani.as and Sapphira, 123 n., 12!) n. 

Anderson, J. M., librarian of bt. An- 
drews, 54. 

Aii'ict, Peter, and Pcdly IJakcr, 150. 

A])ocaIypse and Daniel, 37. 

Argyle, Duke of, and the Scotch, 45. 

Arnold, Matthew, and sweet reasonable- 
ness, 135. 

Astor library, 80. 

"Atlantic Magazine" and "Atlantic 
Monthly," 294 n. 

Atwater, W. O., and pork and beans, 
182 «. 

Augustus, Virgil, and Dante, 23 n.; 
Jefferson, 270 n. ; royal family of 
England, 270 n. 

Aurora, the, and Professor Draper, 47. 

Bagpipk, 35-38; versus dulcimer, SG. 

Baird, Dr. Patrick, and Franklin, 55, 56 
and n. 

Baker, W. S., and Boston medal, 156 
and n. 

Bancroft and Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, 2. 

Barlow, Mr., and the camel, 31 n. ; 
Boston, 32. 

Barlow, Joel, and Franklin. 161 n. 

Barr, Mrs., and "A Sister to Esau," 
44 n. 

Barton, E. M., librarian, 64. 

Baskerville's Virgil to Harvard, 07 and 
n. ; Dr. Johnson, 08 n. 

Bass Rock and the Scotch, 43. 

Bayne. T. Vere, and the Oxford records, 
93 and n. 

Bay P?alm Book, 27-31. 

Heacon Street and Bacon Street, 182 n. 

Beans, and pork, 179 and n.: Saint 
Chrysostom, 179; Professor Putnam, 
180 n. ; Excelsior, 181 and n.; the 
Church, 181 n.; the Xew England 
clerg}-, 182 ; Pliny, 183 ; the camel, 234. 



INDEX 



Beattie and Hume, IIG, 

Ueatty, llev. Mr., and Franklin, UO-141. 

Beetliovcn and VoltairGtand Theodore 
Parker, 124. 

Belly, tlie source of all military opera- 
tions, G. 

Benedict XIII., founder of St. Andrews, 
3. 

Berkeley, Jlrs. E. T., 7. 

Berkelej', George M., and his poems, 7. 

Bever, Thomas, and Franklin at Ox- 
ford, [)7. 

Bigelow, John, and Franklin's works, 
GO. 

Birch, Thomas, and Franklin, 104 and 
n., 105. 

Birnam Wood and Shakespeare, 12. 

Blackburne, Rev. Mr., and HoUis Me- 
moirs, 249. 

Bodleian Library, book given by Frank- 
lin, 4 n. ; annals by JIacray, 22 n. ; 
its deserted halls, 81 and n.; book 
given by FVanklin, 100 and n. 

Bollandist Fathers and the Acta 
Sanctorum, 78. 

Bona, Cardinal, and the bean, 181 n. 

Boston, and its self-aniplilicalion, 32 ; 
Emerson, 33«. ; motto, 33 n.; doctors 
of its past, 37; Dr. Spence,55 ; Public 
Library, 107 and n. ; its beanery, 
182 n.\ Cave's insult, 305 n. 

Boswell and Xenophon, 193. 

Boucicault, Mme., and her soul of good- 
ness, 204 n. 

Bowdoin, James, to Franklin, 59. 

Bowring, Sir John, and the Scotch, 43, 
44. 

Bozzj' in Edinburgh, 11. 

Braddock and "Washington, 309. 

Bradley, Henry, and "publisher," 103; 
meaning of "sincerity," 119; the 
Bradshaw epitaph, 2G0. 

Bradshaw and Cromwell, bodies of, 
244 w. 

Bradshaw and Hancock, 242, 243 and 
n.; Adams, 242 «. ; Milton, 243; 
Franklin, 245. 

Bradshaw's epitaph, 288 and n.\ 
President Stiles, 274-278. 

Brandis and Xenophon, 193. 

Breeches, Boswell on, 35; Johnson, 35. 



Bridges, Rev. George, and the epitaph, 
24G. 

Brinley, George, and Bay Psalm Book, 
29 ». 

British Museum, 14; Franklin's M-orks, 
19; " IlistoricalKeview," 104; Frank- 
lin's gift, 104; bust of Hercules, 211. 

Broderick, History of Oxford, 81 »k 

Brooks, Bishop, at court, 17. 

Bunker Hill and tiie Scotch, 12 and n. 

Bunyan and Moses, 161 and n. ; Pil- 
grim and the Slough of Despond, 31 ; 
the hog, 178 n. 

Bnrk, History of Virginia, and epitaph, 
2G3. 

Burke, and George HI., 14 ; Gibbon, 100, 
111; "Gentleman's Magazine," 300 n. 

Burleigh, Lord, in " Tlie Critic," 229. 

Burney, Miss, and George III., 21; the 
royal bath, 34 n. 

Burns, and Bunker Hill, 12; Franklin, 
12. 

Butler, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, and Kus- 
kin, 42 n. 

Cambridge in Indianese, 30 n. 

Cambridge, University of, and LL.D., 
72-76. 

Camel, the, 31 and n.; Mr. Barlow, 32; 
Virtue, 234. 

Canning, George, and fee, 82 n. 

Canon Law and Henry VIII., 73; 
Adams on, 73 n. 

Canton, Mr., and Franklin, 104. 

Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, 5; Franklin, 
46 and n. 

Carlyle, Thomas, and the Queen, 18 n. ; 
Scotch thrift, 39 «.: lawyers, 79 n.; 
Gibbon, 112 n.\ the human face, 113; 
Newman, 125; the Jews, 132; Dis- 
raeli, 132; King John and Koths- 
child, 133; at Edinburgh, 163; Ruskin, 
171 n.; talk, 204«.; Prod icus, 205 «. 

Cato and Franklin, C8 n.\ Logan's 
translation, OS n. 

Cave, Edward, and "New England 
Magazine," G5-GG; Louisburg, 140b.; 
Polly Baker, 14-3-148; "William Smitli, 
145;" Annet, 150-151; insult to Shake- 
speare and Boston, 305 n. ; portrait 
and epitaph, 258 n. 



322 



INDEX 



Characteristiclis, new edition, 225. 
Cliase, Samuel, letter from Adams, 154. 
Chatham, Lord, and Continental Con- 
gress, 1; bust at Harvard College, 67. 
Chauiiccy, Rev. Charles, and Louisburg, 

1-39, 140 n.; Moses and his laws, 1G3. 
Chauvelin, Abb6. and Mme. de Geiilis, 

112. 
Chic.igo and the hog, 176. 
Churchill and O.Kford degrees, 85 n. 
Circourt, M. de, and the Scotch, 41, 
Claret and Dr. Johnson in Scotland, 38. 
Clarke, Prof. E. C, and LL.D., 4 ti.; 

legal studies, 76 n. 
Clive's degree from Oxford, 84 n.; at 

court, 89. 
Colenso and Moses, Stanley and the 

Archbishop of Canterbury, 165 n. 
Colonial intelligence, 259. 
Committee on Great Seal, debates of, 

279, 280. 
Compass, and Duke of Sussex, 19 and 

n.; Lablache, 20 n. 
Continental Congress, and Lord Chat- 

liam, 1; resolution,!; Declaration of 

Independence, 2; Franklin, 2. 
Copley medal to l-'ranklin, 57 n. 
Coste,' Pierre, 219, 220. 
Court, the P^nglish, 17. 
Cowper, the Hon. Charles Spencer, his 

marriage, 291 «. 
Cox, Memoirs of O.xford, 82 n. 
Cromwell and Bradshaw, their bodies 

disinterred, 244 and n. 
Crowninshield, Edward A., and the Bay 

Psalm Book, 29 n. 
Culloden and Duke of Cumberland, 257. 
Cumberland, Duke of, detested, 24; the 

Scotch, 26 ; Thomas HoUis, 257 and n. ; 

Cave, 253 and n. 
Gushing, Judge William, and his A.M., 

71. 

D.\.NiKL, and the bagpipe, .36, .38; Father 
I'usey and Newton, 37 and n.; as 
explained by tlie Apocalvpse, 37; his 
cornucopi.i, .37 n.; a legend, 172. 

Dante, and Augustus, 23 n. ; the Inferno, 
123. 

David and Goliath, 172. 

D.C.L. among the saints, 78. 



Deanc, Silas, and Polly Baker, 149. 
Declaration of Indcpenduncc, 2; tlie 

Scotch, 11 ; Jefferson and Adams, 

2G7n. 
" Decline and Fall," in Massachusetts, 

107 and n.; Kuskin's view, 108. 
Deffand, Mme. du, and Gibbon, 113 n. 
Degrees in general at the present dav, 

78. 
Delany, Mrs., life and correspondence, 

15. 
Delaval, Mr., and Franklin, 104. 
Depcw, Hon. C. M., and the American 

hog, 174, 175. 
Deuteronomy and Sloses, 1G4. 
Dexter, Franklin 1?., librarian of Yale, 

50; essay on Goffe and Whalley, 277. 
Dido and Franklin, 105. 
Disraeli, Benjamin, and Dr. Birch, 

104 n.; on Shcnstone's poem, 189. 
Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, and Carlyle, 

132; as a Jew, 113 n.; Sir Robert 

Peel, 134 n. 
Dodd, Dr. William, in Paris, 305 and n. 
Dominus, meaning of, 96 and n. 
Dooley, Mr., on kings, 16 n. 
Dorsetshire, English, 16 n. 
Draper, Professor, and electricity, 47. 
Dryden and his seraphs, 125. 
Dubourg, Franklin's letter to, 34. 
Dudley,' Paul, and Polly Baker, 146-148. 
Duff, Grant, and the Scotch, 43. 
Duflield, Rev. Mr., and Adams, 165. 
Dumpling, and Duke of Saxc-Coburg- 

Gotha, 20 n. ; George HI., 20, 22 and n. ; 

Queen Victoria, 20 n. 
Dunciad and Oxford students, 80 n., 83. 
Dunscombe, William, and Prodicus, 188. 
Du Simitiere, the Boston medal and 

other sketches, 155-158; seal of Vir- 
ginia, 264; seal of U. S., first sketch, 

282; second sketch, 283. 
Dyer, Major, and statue of George III., 

25 n. 

Earle, Alice M., and baked beans, 
179 n. 

Earwaker, East Cheshire, 242 n. 

Edinburgh, in the eighteenth century, 
11 ; Franklin at, 4.5-18, 91 ; University 
of, and its degrees, 84,85; Gibbon, 91. 



323 



INDEX 



Edwards, Br^van, and the Bradshaw epi- 
taph, 240: letter, 247. 

Lhloii, Lord, and the speech of George 
III., 10 and n. 

Electricity at St. Andrews and in Scot- 
land, 55. 

Eliot, Jolin, and Hay Psalm Book, 30; 
Indian Biblt;, 30 n. 

Elizabeth, Princess, on going to church, 
7 ; her marriage, 7 «. 

Emerson and Boston, 33 n. ; Satan, 202 n. 

Epitaph, Bradshaw's, 238-240; 11. Brad- 
ley on, 261. 

"E phiribus unum," C3-65. 

Erskine at St. Andrews, 54. 

Examinations at Oxford, 85 n. 

Expansion, Adams and others on, 170. 

"Experiments and Observations," gift 
to Harvard, G7. 

Faithful and Moses, 161 and n. 

Farebrother, Rev. Mr., and Frodicus, 
206. 

Fees at Oxford, 82. 

Figaro and mendacity, 128. 

Fiske, Professor John, and union, 268 n. 

Flag of our union, 312 n. 

Forbes, President, and tea in Scotland, 
39. 

Ford, Paul L., and Franklin Biblio- 
graphy, 60 and n. 

Foster's "Alumni Oxon." and LL.D., 
76 n. 

Fothergill, Dr., and his preface to 
"New Experiments," 160. 

Fox, and " The Decline and Fall," 108, 
109; poem, 110. 

Franklin, and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 2; in the Continental Con- 
gress, 2 ; the great seal, 2; his LL.D., 
3; meaning of LL.D. and J.U.D., 
3 and 4 «., 72, 75 and n.; fame in 
Scotland in 1797, 9; liking for 
Wilkes, 12, 13; George III'., 13; 
his two charmers, 14 n.; Mrs., and 
her spelling, 14 n.; works, ed. of 
1818, 19; Duke of Sussex, 19 n.; his 
air-bath and his soap, 27 ; aerated 
nudity, 33, 34; St. Andrews and its 
poverty, 39 ; Edinburgh, 45; Glasgow 
and St. Andrews, 45-43; Hume, 47; 



Adam Smith, 4Q; Dr. Baird, 55, 56; 
St. Andrews, 50 and n. ; his " New 
Experiments," 57, 59-<jl ; list of 
LL.D.'s, 57; Copley medal, 57 n. ; 
gilt to St. Andrews, 57, 58; "The 
Interest of Great Britain Con»iidered," 
02, 03; letter to William Strahan, 
04 n. ; "Gentleman's Magazine," 
04 n.; degree from Harvard, CO; 
Baskerville's Virgil, 07; Cicero, 68 n.; 
Logan's Cato on Old Age, 68 n. ; vote 
of Harvard, 68; diploma, 68-71; his 
LL.D. and Mr. Sibley, 72; at Oxford, 
80, 82, 92-100; works. 99, 102 n.; let- 
tertoDr. Birch, 104; Gilpin and Dido, 
105; Adam Smith and Robertson, 106; 
Gibbon, 106; as an author, 106 «. ; 
"le Sieur " and Gibbon, 116; truth, 
117, 120; Poor Richard, 117; Polly 
Baker. 118; Horace Walpole, 118; the 
Virtues, 118; Job, 120 w. ; Sweden- 
borg and his angels, 121 ; truth in Old 
Testament, 128; his religion, 134-136; 
the devil, 1.j5 and «.; Renan, 137; 
prayer, 137-141; the great seal, 153, 
154,158; Moses, 162; the hog. 183 n.; 
Hercules, 184-185; Prodicus, 187, 188, 
191, 192; his style and the epitaph, 
245; Thomas B. Hollis, 252; in Eng- 
land, 252; memoirs, 252; anonvmous 
authorship, 260 n.; Polly i5aker, 
260 n.; epitaph on himself, 263 ».; 
examination in 1766, 263 «.; philoso- 
pher, 275; praised in the '"Gentle- 
man's Magazine," 300 n.; praises 
" Gentleman's Magazine," SOO. 

Franklin, William, and his degree at 
Oxford, 93, 94, 98 n. 

Frederick the Great, and the belly, 6; 
Thomas Hollis, 256. 

Frederick, son of George II., 24. 

Freeman and Xenophon, 194. 

French language and the Duke of 
Wellington, 22 n. 

Froude and his apothegm, 6. 

Furtwiingler and Hercules, 20D. 

Gage, General, and the burning of Port- 
land, 238. 
Gallio and the Scotch, 44 n. 
Garrick, Mrs., dinner, 256 n. 



824 



INDEX 



Gcnlis, JIme. de, and Gibbon, 112; 
Mcinoiros, 112. 

Gensano Hercules, 211. 

"Gentleman's Jlagazine," and the 
"New England Magazine," G4, 05; 
Franklin, 64 n. ; " E pliiribns ununi,'' 
293; character of, 294; Dr. Johnson, 
299 n., 307; Edmund Burke, 3t)0 n.; 
praises Franklin, 300 «.; contents and 
dirty poetry, 301; never republished 
in America, 306 n. ; inspired prophecy 
about America, 306; Washington, 
303. 

George II., and Dr. Young, 14; Dr. 
Young's sermons, 21; Pope, 23; his 
father's will and his son Frederick, 
24. 

George III., and Franklin, 13; Wilkes, 
13; "Gentleman's Magazine," 13 n. : 
his characteristics, 13; spelling, 14; 
Scotch subjects, 14; note-book, 14,15: 
Walt Whitman, 15 «.; Lord Eldon, 
16; Miss Port, 15; St. Paul's, 10; 
Duke of Sussex, 18; dumpling, 20; 
lightning-rods, 20 «.; Shakespeare, 
21; statue and epitaph by Landor, 25 
and «.; his bath, 34 n.; London 
society, 91. 

Georges, The, en masse, 24; Laudor's 
epitaph, 24. 

Gibbon, at Oxford, 80 n., 83 n.; the 
United States, 83 «.; letter, 90; 
Franklin, 103, 110, 141; Memoires, 
103 n.; Paris, 100. 107; Charles F. 
Adams, 107 ; Ruskin, 108 ; his fame, 
108; his "place," 109; Burke, 109; 
Fox, 109; Lord North, 110 and n.; 
gestation, 111; fatness. 111; at Lau- 
sanne, 111 n ; Mme. de Crouzas, 112; 
Kaynal, 112 n.; Carlyle, 112 re.; on 
horseback, 112; Reynolds' portrait, 
113; features, 113; Mme. du Deffand, 
113 «.; silhouette, 114; pamphlet, 
115; America, 115; Wilkes, 116; the 
Virgin Mary, 203 n. 

Gilpin, John, and Franklin, 105. 

Girardin, Professor, epitaph, 262; Wythe 
and the seal of Virginia. 274. 

Gladstone and Homer, 194 w. ; Hercu- 
les, 196. 

Glasgow, Franklin at, 45, 46. 



God of the Jews, 130, 131. 

Goffe, William, and President Stiles, 278. 

Gookin, Daniel, and the Indians, 180 n. 

Gray, F. C, and the sow, 177 n. 

Gray, Sir James, LL.D., 57. 

Great Seal of the United States, 279; 
report of committee, 281; second 
description, 2S2 ; in "Harper's Mag- 
azine," 283; Du Simitiere, 284. 

Gribelin and Shaftesbury, 225-227. 

Giidley, Jeremy, and Adams, 253, 255. 

Guizot and Acta Sanctorum, 78. 

II.\NCocK and Bradshaw, 242. 

Harcourt, Lady, and Princess Elizabeth, 
17 n. 

" Harper's Magazine," article by 
Lossing, 283. 

Harrison, Frederic, and Gibbon, 83 n. 

Harvard College, Veritas, 33 n. ; St. 
Andrews degree, 62 n.; its A.M. to 
Franklin, GO; Franklin's gifts, 67; 
LL.D., 77; Oxford, 80 n. 

Hawaii and the hog, 183 n. 

Hebe and Hercules, 197. 

Heidelberg and its J.U.D., 77. 

Helvetius, Mme., and her spelling, 14. 

Hemans, Mrs., and the Pilgrim Fathers, 
28. 

Hengist and Horsa, 158 n., 159 n. 

Henry V. and the "soul of goodness," 
204 and n. 

Henry VIII., and the two universities, 
3 n.; the Canon Law, 73 and «. 

Herbert, George, and the Bible, 37. 

Hercules, Moses, and Buiiyan, 161 fl. ; 
Adams, Lord Shaftesbury, Franklin, 
Xenophon, Horace, and Prodicus, 184- 
187; Ilesiod, 195 n.; character, 195; 
Homer, Gladstone, 196, 197 ; with the 
gods, 197; Robert le Diablo. 199 n.; 
Linus, 190 «.; Max Muller, 200, 201; 
Mark Twain, 200 n. ; Dr. Johnson, 
201 ; according to the artists, 207-215; 
Furtwiinglor, 209; Lansdownc House 
and Skopas, 212; the painters, 214, 
216; Poussin,214; figure of, 228,232; 
Thomas Ilollis, 256. 

Ilesiod, and Hercules, 195 n.; Virtue, 
233 n. 

Hcsse-Hombourg, Landgrave of, 17 n. 



325 



INDEX 



Higginson, Thomas W., and the Pil- 
grim diarists, 17G n. 

Higlilanders, 2G. 

Hill, Dr. George B., and Boswell's 
Johnson, G8w. ; Hume's letters, 101 n. 

"Historical Review," l-'rankliu's, 100- 
105, 117. 

Hoar, Senator, and Ilengist and Horsa, 
159 n.; Kent, 159 n.; Deuteronomy, 
lljin. 

Hog, in New England, 173-183; the 
Pilgrims, 173, 174; dear to the min- 
istry, 178, 179; Bunyan, 178 «. ; 
Franklin, 183 n. 

Hogreeves, 177. 

Ilollis, Thomas, " Franklin a trimmer," 
135; memoirs and epitaph, 248-250; 
his peculiarities, 249-25ti; his grave, 
249 n.; Thomas Brand, 251 n. ; Dr. 
Andrew Eliot, 252, 255; Canon and 
Feudal Law,252 ; Adams,253; "Ameri- 
can Discontents," 253; Empress of 
Kussia, 254; Hercules, Frederick the 
Great, Duke of Cumberland, 250. 

Hollis, Thomas Brand, and memoirs, 
249-252; seat in Parliament, 250 n.; 
the Adamses, 258. 

Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, and pla- 
giarism, 294 n. 

Ilolroyd, J. (Lord Sheffield), letter 
from Gibbon, 107. 

Homer and Gladstone, 194 n , 195 n. : 
Hercules, 196. 

Hooker, Thomas, and Franklin, 134. 

Hopkins, Stephen, and Washington 
medal, 155. 

Hopkinson, Thomas, and his experi- 
ments, 59. 

Horace and Hercules, 18G. 

Hotspur and the Scotch, 40 n. 

Houdon and Saint Bruno, 209. 

Howe, General, at Bunker Hill, 12. 

Howell, James, and the Scotch, 40 n. 

Hume, in London, 11 «.; Franklin, 47, 
101, 100; letters to Strahan, 101; 
character, 101 n. ; " Tristram Shandy," 
lOGn. 



Illinois and the hog, 176. 

Indian Bible, 30 n. ; Quaritch, 30 n. 

Indians and beans, 130 and n. 



Ingersoll, Colonel Robert, and Hell, 123; 

" Paradise Lost," 124 n. 
" Interest of Great Britain considered," 

100. 
Israel, death of, 120. 

Jackson and Landor, 25. 

Jamaica and the epitaph, 246, 247. 

Jefferson, Thomas, and the Declaration 
of Independence, 2; great seal, 2, 1£3, 
154, 158; Presidential dinners, 80 n.; 
epitaph, 201-266; kings, 263; loyalty 
to Virginia, 2GG-208; letter to J. Page, 
208; Augustus, 270 «. 

Jewish God, 130. 131. 

Jews, and the truth, 128-130 ; Zola, 132; 
Carlyle, 132, 133. 

Job and Kuskin, 171 n. 

Johnson, Dr., in Edinburgh, 11; Bos- 
well, Wilkes, and Arthur Lee, 12; 
Scotch claret, 38; Baskerville's Vir- 
gil, 67 «.; LL.D., 77 ; Oxford degree, 
77, 82, 91, 92 ; bow to an archbishop, 
77; a dinner with the canons, 80; 
"The Idler," 87; Oxford, 88, 89; 
Lord's Prayer, 88; Vestris, 88; sera- 
glio, 89; anonymity, 102; Hercules, 
201 ; "Gentleman's Magazine," 299. 

Johnson, Samuel, President of King's 
College, 69. 

Johnson, Rev. William, and his degree, 69. 

Jonah and the whale, 36; Franklin, 120; 
Lord Shaftesbury, 120 n. 

Jones, Sir William, and Oxford, 83; 
motto, 186. 

Josselyn, the hog in New England, 176, 
177; the bean, 179 ?^. 

Jucundus and the hog, 175. 

J.U.D., 3, 77. 

Karnak, 80. 

Karnes, Lord, and Franklin, 45. 
Katisha and Franklin, 135. 
Kent, 158 n. 

Kings and Mr. Dooley, 16 n. 
Kinnersley, Ebenezer, and his experi- 
ments, 59-62. 



Laelache's compass, 20 n. 
Landor and his epitaph on the Georges, 
24; Jackson and Washington, 25. 
32G 



INDEX 



Langdon, President of Ilan-ard, and 

Franklin's degree, 62 n. 
Lansdowne, Hercules, 212, 213. 
Lawyer, beatitiod, 78. 
Lawj-crs, 79 and n. 

Layng, Rev. Peter, and Prodicus, 190. 
Lee, Arthur, dining at Boswell's, 12. 
Lee, Richard Henrv, and his resolution, 

1. 
Lenox, James, and Mr. Stevens, 29 n. 
Leslie and the hog, 175. 
Liberty, the forests and the poets, 23. 
Liddon, Canon, and the Jews, 131 n. 
Lincoln and tlie hog, 175, 170. 
Linus and Hercules, 199 and n. 
Litchfield, Earl of. Chancellor, 97. 
Livingston, and the Declaration of 

Independence, 2. 
LL.D. at Oxford and Cambridge, 3 n.; 

Professor Clarke, 4 7j. 
Logan, Chief Justice, and his Cato, 68 n. 
London, and its air, 34 and n. ; societv, 

90, 91; lords, 91. 
Longfellow at court, 17, 18 n. 
Lossing, sketch of great seal, 283 ; 

article on great seal, 283, 
Louis XIV. and "E pluribus unum," 

292; his motto, 293. 
Louisburg and Franklin, 137, 138; 

prayer, 137-140. 
Lowell and the Jews, 133. 
Lowth, Bishop, and Prodicus, 188, 190. 
Luther's Psalm on the bagpipe, 36. 
Lyell, Sir Charles, and Virginia arro- 
gance, 207 «. 

Macaulay, Mrs., and letter from 

Adams, 254; Dr. Johnson and De 

Quincey, 257 n. 
Macclesfield, Earl of, and his oration, 

57 n. 
Malone, anecdote of Gibbon, 113 n. 
Mandeville on Shaftesbury, 232 n. 
"Manus luce inimica tyrannis," 313 n. 
Jlark Twain and Hercules, 200 n. 
Marshall, Judge, and expansion, 170. 
Martineau, Miss, anecdote, 19 n., 20 n. 
Vinson, George, and seal of Virginia, 

273 n. 
Mas?acliusetts, motto of, 313 ;;. 
Mather, Cotton, 103. 

32 



Matthaeis, Paolo de, his painting, 227. 

McDowel, Thomas, LL.D., 57. 

McLean, Jessie, 290 «. 

McRae, Col. Sherman, and seal of Vir- 
ginia, 273 n. 

Meconi, Benjamin, and Franklin's pam- 
phlet, 62; " New England Jlagazine," 
03; " E pluribus unum," G4; "Gentle- 
man's Magazine," 65; "Historical 
Review," 101. 

Mecom, Mrs., and the family soap, 27, 
102. 

Menzics, Archibald, LL.D., 57. 

Michelet and Raynal, 143. 

Micklethwaite, letters, 219-224. 

Milo, 228, 230. 

Milton, and Thurlow, 124 n.; Ingersoll, 
124 n.; Wadsworth, 191; Virtue, 
234 ft., 230; Raphael, 236 n.; Brad- 
shaw, 243 and n. 

Jliracle of the loaves and fishes, 127 n. 

Miracles in general, 127 n. 

Mivart, Professor, the truth, 122; hell, 
123,124; Newman, 125. 

Monarchs to-day, 23. 

Monboddo, Lord, and his air-bath, 2G. 

Monk, Lord, bon-mot, 40 n. 

Montagu, Mrs., 91. 

Moses, dispnte over his bodj-, 36; saint, 
79; Jehovah, 131 «.; the great seal, 
159-109 ; Warburton, 160 n. ; Shaftes- 
bury, 100 n. ; Bunyan, 161 and n. ; Joel 
Barlow, 161 n.; Franklin, 102; in 
New England, 102-164 ; Deuteronomy, 
164; Aiiams, 165, 106; Newman, 166; 
J. Q. Adams, 160 ; Polly Baker, 108 n. ; 
Robert le Diable, 199 n.\ Hercules, 200. 

Motteux, Jean, 290 n. 

Motteux, Pierre A., and " E pluribus 
unum," 288-293; intention of mar- 
riage, 290 71.; birth, registry of, and 
death, 290. 

IMiiller, Professor, and Xenophon, 193. 

Miiller, Professor Max, and Hercules, 
200. 

Napolkon and Raynal, 143. 
Nebuchadnezzar and his orchestra, 36; 

his cud, 225. 
New England, rum, 27. 132; Polly 

Baker, 118; enterprise, 174. 



INDEX 



" New Knf;jland Magazine," G3-6G. 
New experiments and observations, 57- 

Gl. 
Newman and untrntlifulness, 122; Mi- 

varf, 124, 125; Cailyle, 125; St. 

Waibmj^a, 127; Moses, 1(J6; tlie ho<r, 

175; the Trinity, 203 n.; tlie Virgin 

Mary, 2(13 n. 
Newton and Daniel, 37. 
North, Lord, at Oxford, 70; Johnson's 

degree, 91,02; Gibbon, 110. 
Newell, Thomas, public orator, 9G. 

Oakham School and its schplars, 30-1. 

Old Testament, and its anonymous 
writers, 102 «. ; truth, 128-130; 
Adams, 171, 172; Ruskin, 171, 172. 

Oregon debate, 166-1G9. 

Origen and trutii, 128. 

Oxford, in 1762, 80; its condition and 
influence, 80, 81, 86-88; number of 
students, 80 n. ; Gibbon at Oxford, 80 
n., 83 n. ; Pope in the " Dunciad," 80 
n., 83 «..; Bodleian Library, 81 w., 100 
«.;itsD.C.L., 82n., 85 m., 00; neglect 
of England's greatest sons, 83, 84; 
Rodney, 84 and n. ; Clive, 84 n.; 
Churchill on its degrees, 85 n.; Adam 
Smith a student, 80; Professor War- 
ton's revelations, 87, 88 ; Dr. Johnson's 
loyalty, 83, 80; Lord North as Chan- 
cellor, 90; Thrale's degree, 90; Dr. 
Johnson's degree, 91; Franklin's de- 
gree, 92,93 n., 94-96, 99, 100; Heb- 
domadal Board, 92; Archives, 93; 
Parton, 93 n.; Acta Convocationis, 94; 
Convocations, 96; Doniinus, 96; Wil- 
liam Franklin, 96, 98, 99; Degrees 
in 1762, 97: the Public Orator, 93; 
gift of "Historical Review," from 
Franklin, 100-103, 

Palfrey, Dr., and his LL.D., 72. 
Paolo de Matthaeis and his work, 213. 
Paris and its society. Gibbon, 90. 
Parker, Theodore, Beethoven and Satan, 

124; his fourth God, 202 n. 
Parton, and Franklin's A.M., 71 «.; 

Franklin's Oxford degree, 93. 
Pattison, Mark, and Oxford, 86. 
Payn, James, anecdote, 20 n. 



Pears' Soap and Libert}-, 20. 

Peel and Disraeli, 134 n. 

" I'ennsj'lvania Gazette," C2 n., C4 n. 

Penn, \\'illiam, G3 n. 

Pentateuch and Adams, 171. 

Pcpfjerell and Louisburg, 139. 

Philadelphia, and Dr. liaird,5C n.; "the 
seat of the Muses," G8 n.; Pleasure, 
235. 

Philip, King, 33 n. 

I'liilippines and the Pilgrims, 33 «. 

Phillips, Claude, and Gibbon's portrait, 
113. 

Philol, 222, 228. 

Pilgrim and the Slough of Despond, 31. 

Pilgrim Fathers, and Mrs. Henians, 28; 
Bay Psalm Book, 31 ; the hog, 173, 
174; diaries, 17G and 7i. 

Pindar and Virtue, 233. 

Pius IX. and the littcrattvr, 18. 

Plato, and Prodicus, 192, 193; the gods, 
197 n. 

Pleasure d la Shaftesbury, 235, 236. 

Pliny and the bean, 183." 

Poet Pye and George III.. 22. 

Poets and royalty, 25. 

Polly Baker, il8; publication, 141 
Raynal, 141; Cave, 143; the "Gentle 
man's Magazine," Franklin, 144 
Judge Dudley, 14G-148; Jefferson 
149-150; American Museum, 151 
Moses, 168 ».; J. Sackett, 298. 

Polykleitos and Hercules, 208-210. 

Pope, and George IL, 23; " Doctor of 
Oxford," 77 ; the number of students 
at Oxford, 80 n.\ "Ajiollo's Mayor 
and Aldermen," 83 n.; Warburton, 
83 11. 

Pork and beans, 179-183; in England 
and Swift, 181 «.; as a national diet, 
182 V. 

Port, Miss, and George in.,15. 

" Post, The Pennsylvania Evening," 
and the epitaph, 238 and n. 

Poupard, engraver, 269 n. 
Poussin and the "Judgment of Hercu- 
les," 189, 214, 215, 218. 
Praver, and Louisburg, 137-140; rum, 

140. 
Priestley and his "History of Electri- 
city," 60. 



328 



INDEX 



Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth, 

23. 
Prince, Kev. Mr., and Ix)uisburj^, 139. 
Princeton College and Hollis Jlemoirs, 

250 n. 
Prodicus, !ind Hercules, 187-215; Shen- 

stone, 183, 18^; the Sophist, 1U2, 193; 

Socrates and Plato, 192; Carl vie, 205 

R.; Rev. Mr. Farebrother, 20G; the 

artis'ts, 207, 208; Franklin, 233 n. 
Providence and the French, 309. 
Public Library of Boston, and its twins, 

33 n. ; Franklin's works, 97 n. 
Public Orator of Oxford, 98 n. 
"Publisher" and Franklin, 103, 104. 
Puritans and Moses, 1G2-1G-1-. 
Puseyand Daniel, 37; credulit_v, 123 n. 
Putnam, Professor, and Indian beans, 

180 H. 

QuARiTcii, and Indian Bible, 30 ».; 

Franklin's Cato, G8 n. 
Queen Charlotte and her etiquette, 18. 
Queen Elizabeth, and her pomp, 22; the 

Prince of \Yales, 23. 
Queen Victoria, and Bishop Brooks, 17 ; 

Longfellow and other poets, 17, 18; 

the dumpling, 20 re.; in Scotland, 45. 
Quincy, Josiah, and his eyes, 170 n. 

Rahab and truth, 128. 

'" Uaisonnemcnt sur le Jugement d'Her- 

cule," 219, 220, 224, 23G. 
Kaudolph and the Bible. 1G7. 
Kaphacl, "the angelic Virtue," 236 n. 
Rawlinson, Richard, epitaph, 24. 
Raynal, Abbe, and Gibbon, 112 n.; his 

great work, 141-143; Follv Baker, 

148-152. 
"Rebellion to tyrants," etc., 2.37-248. 
Renan, and his "Vie des Saints," 78; 

St. Francis of Assisi, 123; St. Luke, 

129 n. ; Franklin, 137. 
Reynolds and his portrait of Gibbon, 

113-115. 
Robert le Diablo and Hercules and 

Moses, 199 n. 
Robertson and Franklin, lOG. 
Robinson, Rev. Mr., and the Calvinists, 

135. 
Rodney and Oxford, 84 and n. 



Rogers, J. K., 7; and Oxford, 8S. 

Roland minister and his shoe-strings, 
17. 

Roman Catholic Church and truth, ltl5 
126. 

Roscher and Prodicus, 211. 

Royalty and the poets, 25. 

Rum, and prayer, 140 and 7i. ; New Eng- 
land, 174. ' 

Rush, Richard, at court, 17; Duke of 
Sussex, 19 n. 

Ruskin, and Voltaire, 42 n. ; Jlrs. Butler, 
42 K.; Gibbon, 108; political economy, 
171 n.; Old Ttstunient, 171 n.; Job, 
Carlylo, and Dr. Furnivall, 171 n.; 
natural history, 172 «. ; the hog, 175; 
Russia, lun press of, and Thomas 
liollis, 254. 

Sachse, Julius F., and seal of American 
Philosoi)!iical Society, 269 n. 

Sackette, Rev. J., and "E pluribus 
uniim," 208. 

Saint Alfonso, and falsehood, 126; Car- 
dinal Xewnian, 127; life of, 151 «.; 
Father Fabcr, 151 n. 

Saint Andrew, his miracle and his rivals, 
39-42; savings banks, 41. 

Saint Andrews, University of, and Mr. 
Lang, 3 «.; foundation of, 3 and 7i.; 
its LL.D., 3 n.; Franklin's degree, 3; 
students, 3-9; their savagery and 
window-breaking, G-9; their food and 
their poverty, 5. 6; John Wesley at, 
7; George Monck Berkeley, 7; bath- 
ing, 20, 35; thrift, 39 and «.; diploma, 
50-54 ; Professors, 53-55 ; Erskine at, 
54; Alumni, 54; electricity at, 55; 
its degrees, 56; Franklin's visit, 56 
n. ; Dr. Baird. 56; "New Observa- 
vations and Experiments," gift of 
Franklin, 105. 

Saint Augustine and the various creeds, 
135. 

Saint Bruno and Houdon's statue, 209. 

Saint Chrysostom and the angels, 179. 

Saint Clement, and tlie truth, 125, 128; 
and Saint Peter, 129 n. 

Saint Cyril and the Virgin IMary and 
Newman and Kingsley, 203 n. 

Saint Jerome and the truth, 123. 



329 



INDEX 



Saint John's College, 99. 

Saint Luke and Ananias, 129 n. 

Saint Moses, 7'J. 

Saint raul, Franklin, and others, 10 n ; 
trulli, 128. 

Saint Teter and truth, 128 n., 120 n. 

Saint Walburga, 127 n. 

Saint Yvo, tiie lawj-er, 79. 

Samson and tlie foxes, 113. 

Samuel, Bunford, librarian, 155. 

Sandford and Jlertoii, tlu; camel, 32 n. 

Sandringham, sale of, 201 n. 

Satan, Lord Thurlow, 124 n. ; Emerson, 
202 n.; Theodore Parker, 202 «. 

Sauerteig, Carlyle, 79 n. 

Savage, James, on the word "publish," 
104 71. 

Scotch English, 10 n. 

Scotch, tlie, fricasseed by Dr. Johnson 
and Wilkes, 12; " Scotus est, piper 
in naso," 30; their miracle, 30; 
James Howell, 40 n. ; M. de Circourt, 
41 ; Voltaire, 41 ; the Yankees of 
Europe, 42; Bass Rock and Grant 
Duff, 43; Bo wring, 43; Gallio, 44 w.; 
the Queen, 45. 

Scotland in the eighteenth century, 10- 
12; water in, 35, 38: tea, 38. 

Seal, great, of the United States, 2, 
153-lGO. 

Seal of Virginia, by Du Siniitiere, 157. 

Sears, David, and his fourth God, the 
Trinity, etc., 201 n. 

Sewall, Samuel, and his diary, 176. 

Seward, William, and Franklin, 96, 97, 
100. 

Shaftesbury, and Jonah, 120 n.; Moses: 
Old Testament, 160 n. ; Hercules, 184, 
187, 191; Prodicus, 216-219; his 
"Notion," 220; letter to M. Coste, 
220; Philol, tablature, 223; portrait 
b}- Closterman, 229; engagement, 230, 
2-31; LadyS. as Virtue, 230; Mande- 
ville, 232 «.; Pleasure, 235. 

Shakespeare, and Mrs. Adams and 
George HI., 21 and n. ; Scotland, 
12. 

Shaw, Judge Lemuel, and his song, 
170 n. 

Sheffield. Lord, and Gibbon, 107, 111; 
Gibbon's portrait, 114, 115. 



Slielle}-, and Washington, 25; truth, 
120 n. 

Shenstone and Prodicus, 188, 189. 

Sheridan, Thomas, teaching English, 
11 n. 

Sherman, Priscilla, and Motleux, 290. 

Sibley, liev. John, and Franklin's de- 
gree, 72. 

"Sic semper tyrannis," and George 
Wythe, 274. 

Skopas and Hercules, 212, 213 7i. 

Smiles, Samuel, and Scotland, 10. 

Smith, Adam, to William Strahan, 44; 
Life of, 45; Franklin, 49, 100; at 
Oxford, 83 and n., 80. 

Smith, Goldwin, and Washington, 309 n. 

Smith, Sydney, in Scotland, 10 n. 

Smith, William, and Polly Baker, 146. 

Socrates and Prodicus, 102. 

Sodom and Gomorrah and their " soul 
of goodness," 204 w. 

Solomon and the poor, G. 

Somers, Lord, letter from Shaftesbury. 
217. 

" Sow business," 104 7i. 

Spence, Dr., and electricity, 55. 

Stanley' and Colenso, 1C5 n. 

Stevens, Recollections, 29 ?i. 

Stewart, George, Professor, LL.D., 57. 

Stiles, President, and Franklin's di- 
ploma, 50 ; the Bradshaw epitaph, 
274; his Latin, 275 7i.; history of the 
Three Judges, 276; William Goffe, 
277; his historical discoveries, 278. 

Stockdale, Rev. Percival, at St. An- 
drews, 4 71. 

Story and Marshall, anecdote, 170 and n. 

Stowell, Lord, exercise, 88. 

Strahan, and Franklin, 100 and «.; 
Hume, 101. 

Stubbs, Bishop, and his lectures, 78. 

Stuber, life of Franklin, 00 7i. 

Sussex, Duke of, and his margin, 18, 19 
and n. ; library, 21. 

Swedenborg and his angels. 121. 

Swift and pork and beans, 181 «. 

Swine, New England, 174-179. 

Syng, Philip, and his experiments, 59. 



TAr.LATURE, 223. 

Taine, and Pe de Puj'anne, 199 n. 



3.S0 



INDEX 



Tea in Scotland, 33. 

Tennyson and the Queen, 13 ?j. 

Thrale and his def;ree, 90. 

Thrift at St. Andrews, 35. 

Thucydidcs and Xenophon, 194. 

Thurlow and Satan, 12-1 n. 

Towne, Benjamin, and the Post, 238 n. 

Townsend, Lady, 01. 

Trclawncv's records of Shellev, etc., 
2G ». ' 

Trilby and Franklin, 135 h. 

Trinity, the, and David Sears, 201, 202, 
203. 

Trist, Nicholas P., and epitaph, 281; 
Jefferson's writing, "233 n. 

" Tristram Shandy " and Franklin's 
Hume, lOG n. 

Truth, and Shelley, 120 n.\ in Old Tes- 
tament, 128-133. 

TuUideph, IJev. Thomas, President of 
St. Andrews, 5. 

Turner, portraits of, 115. 

'• Tutissinuis ibis," 167. 



Unicorn, the, and Ruskin, 171 n., 172 n. 



Vanderbilt, Cornelius, and Bay Psalm 
Book, 29 «. 

Vaughan, Benjamin, and Franklin's 
works, 99 n. 

Vernon, Admiral, and Oxford, 83. 

Vespasian died standing, 22. 

Vestris and Dr. Johnson, 89. 

Virgil and Augustus, 23. 

Virgin Mary, the Trinity, and Xewman, 
203 n. 

Virginia, seal of, 157; "Sic semper 
tyrannis," 2G6-2(;8; letter to Madi- 
son, 203; Jefferson and seal of, and 
loyalty, 2G8; Professor Fiske as to her 
assumptions, 2G8 n. 

Virtue, figure of, 229, 232, 233 and n. ; 
her hill, 233, 234; the Greek poet.s, 
233 n. ; Milton, 234 n. 

Voltaire, and St. Andrew's miracle, 42; 
the Scotch, 42; Ruskin, 42 n.; Bee- 
thoven, 124. 

Von Hoist and Adams, 109 n. 



Walh.\.ll.\. of Boston, 107. 

Walpole, Horace, and Hollis Memoirs, 

249 «. ; Thomas Hollis, 25G n.; 

Franklin, 118. 
Walt Whitman and George HI., 15 n. 
Warburton, and Oxford, 83 n.; Moses, 

IGO 71. 
Ward, Rev. AVilliam G., on truth, 12G. 
Warton, Rev. Thomas, letter from 

Johnson, 67 n.; life at Oxford, 87. 
Washington, wine-glass of, 5; his com- 
mon sense, 12; dumpling of George 

HI., 20 n.; Shelley, 25 ; crossing the 

Delaware, 33 n.; his writing, 287 Ji. ; 

" Gentleman's JIagazine," SOS; 

character and talents, 309; Braddock 

and Wolfe, 309; Goldwin Smith on 

Wasliington, 309 7!. 
Water in Scotland, 38. 
Webster, Daniel, and his notes, 19. 
Wellhausen and the Jews of Jehovah, 

131 «., 133 n. 
Wellington and his French, 22 n. 
Wesley, Kev. John, at St. Andrews, 7; 

Edinburgh, 11. 
Wilkes, and Johnson, 12; liked by 

Franklin, 12; George HI., 13 and n.; 

the "Observer," IIG. 
Windsor and royalty*, 17 and n. 
Winthrop, Prof. John, friend of Frank- 

lin,68. 
Winthrop, Governor, History of New 

England, 104; the hog, 176, 177. 
Witherspoon, Dr., and Benjamin Townc, 

238 n. 
Wolcott at Louisburg, 139. 
AVordsworth at Milton's rooms, 191. 
W\-the, George, and " Sic semper 

tvrannis," 274; his scholarship, 273; 

friendship for Adams, 273 n. 

Talk, and the St. Andrews diploma, 
50; its A.M., 71; its LL.D., 77. 

Young, Dr., and his eulogy of George 
II., 14; sermons, 21. 

Young, John, librarian of St. Andrews, 
57. 

Xenophon, and the hog, 183; Hercules, 
184; Prodicus, 192; Boswell, 193. 



BISMARCK'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



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THE BROWNINGl LETTERS 



THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING AND 
ELIZABETH BARRETT BARRETT, 1845-1846. 
Illustrated witli Two Contemporary Portraits of the 
"Writers, and Two Facsimile Letters. With a Pref- 
atory Note by R. Barrett Browning, and Notes, 
by F. G. Kenyon, Explanatory of tlie Greek Words. 
Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Deckel 
Edges and Gilt Tops, 85 00 ; Half Morocco, 89 50. 

Mnnj' good gifts have comn to English literature from the two 
Brownings, husband and wife, besides those poems, which are 
their greatest. The gift of one's poems is the gift of one's self. But 
in a fuller sense have this unique pair now given themselves by 
what we can but call the gracious gift of these letters. As their 
union was unique, so is this correspondence unique. . . . The 
letters are the most opulent in various interest which have been 
published for manv a day. — Academy, London. 

We have read these letters with great care, with growing as- 
tonishment, with immense respect ; and the final result produced 
on our minds is that these volumes contain one of the most pre- 
cious contributions to literary history which our time has seen. — 
Saturday Review, London. 

We venture to think tliat no such remarkable and unbroken 
series of intimate letters between two remarkable people has ever 
been given to the world. . . . There is something extraordinarily 
touching in the gradual unfolding of the romance in which two 
poets play the parts of hero and heroine. — Spectator, London. 



HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

^^^The above work mil be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any 
part of tlie United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 



By a. W. E. KUSSELL 



COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. By One 
Who Has Kept a Diary. With One Illustration. 
Crown 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Deckel Edges and Gilt 
Top, $2 50. 

It docs not often happen that a volume of remhiiscences pre- 
sents so much interesting and attractive matter. ... It is dilDcult 
to liiy aside a hook which contains so much of tlic salt whicli sea- 
sons life. Such a volume is a never-failing resource for the reader 
wearied of overmuch feeding on the solid viands of literature. 
Especially commendable is the spirit of kindness which pervades 
the narratives. There are no flings at living pygmies or dead 
lions. — Brooklyn Eagle. 

THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM EWART 
GLADSTONE. ( Queen's Fnme-3Iimsters.) Portrait. 
Crown 8vo, Cloth, 81 00. 

Mr. George W. E. Russell, who writes this book, has done a 
difficult task well. The personal biography is necessarily brief, 
because the plan of the book calls for a political biography, and 
because Gladstone entered public life at twenty-two, and lias lived 
and breathed the air of Parliament ever since. Yet it would not 
be possible to measure his public career justly without that knowl- 
edge of his personality and his ingrained tastes. Mr. Russell has 
provided the needful information in a succinct form, and his final 
chapter, in which he analyzes Mr. Gladstone's character, is elo- 
quent in its restraint and vigor of touch. — Atlantic Monthly. 



HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers 

NEW YOUK AND LONDON 

Either of the above tcorks will he sent hy mail, postage pre- 
paid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receiut 
of the price. 



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